House of the Brave: The Bonds of Friendship
by islandgirl394
Summary: It's Dominique's first year at Hogwarts and she couldn't be more terrified. Join Dominique and her fellow first years as they learn what it's like to be Hogwarts students. Part of a larger series.
1. September

**Thank you for choosing this story!**

 **To learn about the House of the Brave project, please visit my profile page.**

 **Hope you enjoy and please review :)**

 **Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters and places from the Harry Potter world, which is trademarked by JK Rowling. However, all plots are my own and are in no way endorsed by JK Rowling or anyone affiliated with the Harry Potter universe.**

* * *

Chapter 1: September 2013

It was Dominique's first day of school and she was terrified. Even though her big sister was going to be there with her, and she'd spent the whole summer getting ready, she felt like she was going to be so out of place. She knew she'd make friends – her parents always told her she had something called charisma, which supposedly made it easier for people to like her. What she was worried about was that she wouldn't like being at Hogwarts. She would be miles away from her parents and her brother for one thing. For another, she was going to have to share a room with a bunch of other girls – what if she didn't like them? Victoire was always telling her horror stories about her roommates. And what about classes? What if she wasn't smart enough to keep up with everyone else? What if it was just too hard?

As Dominique and her family drove to King's Cross station that morning, all these questions swirled around inside Dominique's head. Maybe she should stay home one more year, she thought. Just to make sure she was really ready. She almost pitched the idea to her parents, but then realized that it would be even worse to be the only twelve-year-old first year.

Much too soon for Dominique, they were on Platform Nine and Three Quarters, their trunks were on the train, and Victoire was tapping her foot as Dominique stalled saying her final goodbyes. Eventually, Victoire gave up and boarded the train without her, giving Dominique a chance to have a moment with her parents.

"You'll write all the time, right?" Dominique asked.

"Every day if you want us to," her mother replied.

"And if it's terrible, you'll let me come home?" Dominique asked.

Her parents shared a look and then her father answered. "We'll make you a deal. If you can stick it out until the Christmas holidays and you still haven't made a single friend, then we can talk about it, alright?"

"Alright," Dominique sighed. She could tell her parents wouldn't allow her to be pulled out of school. Her father was just humoring her. But it was nice to think she still had a bit of a choice.

The last warning whistle blew and Dominique knew she had to board the train or risk having to be walked up to the front gates by her father – definitely not the first impression she wanted to make on her classmates.

"Bye _maman_ ," she said. "Bye _papa_ ," she hugged them each in turn.

"Bye Dominique," her younger brother said, reaching for a hug. "Are you sure you have to go? I'm going to be all alone."

"Don't worry," Dominique assured him. "You're going to have a great time. And you'll be at Hogwarts before you know it."

Knowing she couldn't linger, because she'd already pushed as far as she could, Dominique waved goodbye and boarded the train. It couldn't have been a second too soon, because just as she reached the top of the stairs, the door slid shut behind her and the train slowly started to crawl forward. Dominique watched out the window as her family slowly disappeared from sight.

"Don't worry Domi," she muttered to herself. "You're going to be fine."

Taking a deep, calming breath, Dominique stepped into the hallway, expecting to find Victoire waiting impatiently. Instead, one lone trunk – hers – waited for her.

"She ditched me!" Dominique gasped in surprise. She realized she was talking to herself, but it wasn't as though there was anyone around to hear.

She peered at the corridor ahead and then turned around and did the same behind. As far as she could tell, Victoire wasn't lingering in the hallway somewhere. She must have gone in search of her friends alone.

As far as Dominique could see, she had two options; she could stand around in the hallway all day like a fool, or she could pick a direction and try to find her sister. She decided to go with the second option. She grabbed the handle of her trunk and began to drag it along towards the back of the train, hoping Victoire hadn't gone far.

"Victoire, I thought you were going to wait for me at the door," she said when she found her sister only one train car down. " _Maman_ made you promise you'd make sure I was alright."

"Dominique, you're eleven," Victoire said in an annoyed voice. "If you can't find a compartment on a train by yourself, then you shouldn't be going to Hogwarts." Victoire was sprawled across the entire right side seat while two of her friends took up the left hand side. Dominique waited expectantly for Victoire to move.

" _Maman_ said I could sit with you," Dominique said pointedly when Victoire didn't slide over.

"So sit," Victoire said a little meanly. "There's plenty of room."

If Victoire was going to be like this, then Dominique decided she would just have to adapt. She dragged her trunk inside the compartment, only realizing once she was inside how little room there was. To her horror, the luggage racks were high up; much higher than Dominique could reach. She tried lifting her trunk, hoping that maybe one of the girls would help her, but Victoire and her friends simply stared at her, so she decided to just leave it. Since Victoire still hadn't moved, Dominique sat down on her sister's legs.

"Ow!" Victoire cried, jumping up. "What'd you do that for?"

"You were taking up all the room," Dominique said. "If you can't keep your feet on your side, then I'm going to sit on them." Where else was she supposed to sit anyway? On the floor?

"Oh my God, we are not doing this!" Victoire cried, moving her feet aside to give Dominique some space to sit. "Dominique you are way too old to pull all that 'you're on my side' stuff. If you're not going to act like a little kid, then you can go and sit with the other little kids."

"Maybe I will," Dominique declared, standing up. Her sister clearly didn't want her there and she was acting really different with her friends around. "You're just being mean. I don't think I like you very much at Hogwarts."

"We're not even at Hogwarts yet," Victoire rolled her eyes. "At least think before you say things."

That was it for Dominique. At home, her sister would play with her, and talk to her, and let her try on her clothes. That's the sister Dominique had wanted to sit on the train with. Not this new weird Victoire who just wanted her friends to think she was cool.

"I'm leaving," Dominique declared. She opened the door and dragged her trunk back into the hall. "Enjoy your boring train ride without me."

The door slid shut behind her, leaving her alone in the hallway once again. Now that she had left, she realized that this meant she had to find somewhere else to sit. She swallowed nervously. Hopefully she could find somewhere. It would be really lame if she had to spend the whole trip walking up and down the hallway with her trunk.

She started off, continuing towards the back of the train. Most of the compartments she was passing seemed to be filled with older students – fifth, sixth, and seventh years. She passed a few that had large groups of younger students, but she was worried that they might be second years and not first years. And besides, she didn't want to just barge in on a group.

Eventually, she came to a compartment with just one occupant inside. A boy who looked about Dominique's age. Dominique crossed her fingers slid the door open.

"Hey," she said. "I'm Dominique. Any chance I could sit here?"

"Sure," the boy said, gesturing to the empty compartment. "There's plenty of space."

Dominique chuckled and dragged her trunk inside. She looked up at the luggage rack, wondering if she should even bother trying to lift it, when out of nowhere, the boy – who had yet to introduce himself – stood up and grabbed her trunk by the top and bottom and heaved it up into the luggage rack.

"Wow!" Dominique exclaimed. "You're really strong! Are you a first year?" She couldn't believe an eleven-year-old was able to lift that thing all by himself.

"Miles Bailey," the boy introduced himself, holding out his hand. "And yeah, I'm a first year."

"Dominique Weasley," Dominique replied, shaking his hand and taking a seat across from him.

"So I guess you don't know anyone either?" Miles asked.

"No," Dominique replied. "Well, my older sister, but she doesn't want me around. She's a third year."

"At least you know she's around," Miles pointed out. "You know, if you need to talk to her or you have a problem or something."

"I thought so," Dominique said. "But as soon as we got on the train, she started acting all different."

"Well sure," Miles said. "Obviously she's going to behave differently when she's with her friends than when she's with her family. I know I wouldn't want my little sister hanging around if I was with my friends. Especially not it I hadn't seen my friends in months and my sister had been hanging around me day and night."

"Yeah, I guess you have a point," Dominique agreed.

There was an awkward silence, and then Dominique decided she'd better say something lest the situation become uncomfortable.

"So what house are you hoping to be sorted into?" she asked, a pretty generic question to ask on the train side to Hogwarts.

"Gryffindor," Miles replied. "What about you?"

"Oh definitely Gryffindor," Dominique smiled. "Almost all my family's been in Gryffindor since I don't even know how long."

Suddenly, Dominique and Miles had plenty to talk about. In fact, they didn't even realize it had gotten dark until the train started slowing down.

"We never changed into our robes!" Dominique cried when she realized how close they were. "Any chance you could get my trunk down?"

Hopping up onto the seat, her new friend grabbed her trunk and heaved it back onto the ground, move shouting for Dominique to move aside right before he dropped it on her foot. He hopped back down as Dominique opened it up and reaching inside for her robes.

"I'll just… go wait out in the hall then," Miles said awkwardly, sliding the door open and then closed again.

Thankful for the privacy, Dominique pulled the window shade down and changed quickly, switching places with Miles so that he could change too. By the time they'd finished, the train was just rolling into Hogsmeade station.

"Here we go," Miles said, leading the way off the train. "Any idea where we go from here?"

Moments after he'd asked, Hagrid's booming voice called out, "firs' years this way! Firs' years follow me!"

"I think we're supposed to go over there," Dominique smirked.

"Right," Miles muttered. "I knew that."

DdDdDdDdDdD

When Dominique finally saw Hogwarts for the first time, her mouth fell open and she just sat there in her boat like a gaping fish. Eventually, Miles told her she should probably close her mouth, and Dominique embarrassedly stared at the bottom of the canoe until he confessed that he had been floored by the sight as well.

Once they were out of the boats, they were led up to the Entrance Hall and soon they were entering the Great Hall.

"Look at that ceiling!" Miles said, pointing upwards. "It's like we're outside!"

"It's beautiful," Dominique agreed. "I like the floating candles too, they make it all so much more magical."

They lined up at the front of the room, staring at a hat on a stool. It must be the sorting hat, Dominique thought. When everyone had stopped walking, the hat began to sing – something Dominique had been prepared for, but many of her fellow first years, including Miles, hadn't been.

Once it was finished, Professor Longbottom unrolled a scroll and began to read their names off in alphabetical order. The first girl called was named Quinn Adams. She sauntered up before her name was even finished being called and took the hat from Professor Longbottom, placing it on her own head and sitting down on the stool. Dominique hoped she wasn't sorted into Gryffindor, because she didn't look like the kind of person she wanted to room with. When the hat declared her a Slytherin, Dominique was relieved, because she knew without a doubt that she wasn't going to end up there.

Next, Zeke Aldrin and Grant Arnold both got sorted into Gryffindor, and then Professor Longbottom called Miles' name.

"Cross your fingers for me," Miles whispered to Dominique as he stepped forward and sat down on the stool. Dominique did, crossing her fingers on both hands, and even crossing her toes in her shoes. Miles was really nice and they got along so well. She hoped he would end up in Gryffindor, because she could tell already that they would end up being really good friends.

When the hat declared Miles a Gryffindor, Dominique clapped along with the rest of the Gryffindor table, smiling widely at him as he made his way over. For most of the rest of the sorting, Dominique just waited impatiently for her turn. She kept an eye on the other girls who got sorted into Gryffindor. Thankfully, none of them looked crazy – hopefully she wouldn't have the same kind of roommates problems that Victoire has.

Finally, when there were only two of them left, Dominique's name was called. She walked up to the front and sat down, letting the Hat fall onto her head.

"Well don't we seem sure of ourselves?" the hat whispered into her ear. "For someone who hasn't been sorted yet, you seem pretty convinced of where you're going to end up." That's right, Dominique thought back to the hat. So just put me there and get this over with. "Well I suppose I can't argue with you. You'll be a perfect fit in GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted the last word, sending the Gryffindor Table into a round of applause.

Dominique did a little jump as she hurried down and took the empty seat Miles had saved for her next to him.

"Congratulations," he said.

"You too," Dominique returned.

They had to quiet down while the final student, Sean Weston, got sorted into Slytherin, and then the Headmistress said a couple of words. As soon as she sat down, all the empty bowls and plates in the center of the table were suddenly filled with food, and everyone hungrily began to fill their plates.

"Well hi everyone!" the boy sitting on Miles' other side said, leaning forward and looking down that table at everyone else. "I'm Grant Arnold. It looks like we're all going to be getting to know each other pretty well over the next seven years, so I just wanted to introduce myself and get off on the right foot. I know we're all going to have a great time here at Hogwarts and I do enjoy meeting each of you individually." When he finished his general speech, he turned to the boy across from him, Zeke Aldin, if Dominique remembered correctly, and held his hand out to shake. Dominique and Miles shared a look and Dominique had to stifle a laugh. Grant reminded her a bit of her Uncle Percy, she thought.

"So what class are you most looking forward to?" Miles asked Dominique, getting the conversation started again.

"Oh, I don't even know," Dominique admitted.

"I think I'm most looking forward to Astronomy," the girl across from them jumped in.

"Why's that?" Miles asked.

"My older brother says the class is held at midnight," she replied. "I've never been allowed to stay up that late before."

"I'm looking forward to potions, I think," Miles said. "It sounds like a lot of fun."

"Oh, not me," Dominique said. "My mother tried to get me to help her cook a stew one time, and the whole thing burnt and the house smelt for weeks."

"You know stew is food, not a potion?" Miles asked.

"Yeah, but it's the same idea," Dominique replied. "Basically, you're putting stuff in a pot over heat and hoping it turns out a certain way."

"That's an interesting way of thinking about it," Miles said.

As he pondered that, Dominique glanced down the table, looking for Victoire. She hadn't seen her since that morning, and she was starting to miss her. Miles had been right earlier; she couldn't hold Victoire's attitude against her. Who wanted a pesky little sister following them around? Finally, she found her sister sitting about halfway down the table and in deep conversation with her friends. She tried to catch her eye, but she just wasn't looking up. Dominique sighed and could only hope her sister wasn't going to completely ignore her all year.

DdDdDdDdDdD

When the feast was over, the Headmistress said a few more words and then sent them off to bed. A female prefect began to call for the first year Gryffindors to gather by the doors, so Dominique and Miles got up with the rest of the classmates and made their way towards her.

Suddenly, Teddy popped up next to the female prefect and began calling the first years forward with her.

"Teddy, are you a prefect?" Dominique asked.

"Yup!" Teddy smiled proudly.

"Congratulations," Dominique said.

"Thanks," Teddy replied. "Alright, if everyone's here, then let's get going."

They began to follow Teddy and the female prefect out of the Great Hall and towards a room filled with staircases.

"You know the prefect?" Miles asked.

"Yeah, he's basically my cousin," Dominique replied. "He's my uncle's godson, and my uncle did a lot to help raise him. He's been a part of my family since before I was born."

When they arrived at the seventh floor, Dominique was pretty exhausted. She hoped it was just because she was also tired, because she was going to be climbing these stairs every day. Miles didn't even seem the tiniest bit exerted, and Dominique was momentarily jealous.

"So this is the common room," Teddy said as they all clambered inside. "These stairs lead to the boys' dorms, and the ones over there lead to the girls'."

"If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask me or Teddy, or one of the older prefects," the girl added.

"Yeah," Teddy agreed. "Now get some sleep. Classes start at eight, and breakfast will be available as early as six. Curfew's at nine, so don't be caught outside the common room past then."

"Curfew is lifted at quarter to six, for those of you that prefer an early breakfast," the girl prefect added.

The prefects left then, disappearing up their respective staircases. Slowly, the first years began to follow them.

"Well, I guess this is where we part ways," Miles said.

"Looks like it," Dominique agreed.

They stood there for a moment awkwardly and then Miles spoke again.

"So, how about we meet up for breakfast tomorrow?" he asked.

"Okay, how about seven, in the Great Hall?" Dominique suggested. Six was a little too early for her.

"Great!" Miles smiled. "Well, goodnight."

"Goodnight," Dominique smiled back.

They parted, and Dominique began to climb the staircase to the girls' dorms. She was a little nervous, now that Miles was gone, but she knew she just had to keep moving forward.

The first years were the fourth dorm from the common room. Dominique pushed the door open and decided to just get the introduction over with.

"Hey guys, I'm Dominique Weasley," she said.

"Hey Dominique," the girl she'd talked with at dinner replied. "I'm Holly by the way, I don't think I ever mentioned that.

"You didn't actually," Dominique said. "But that's okay."

"I'm Brooke," the girl nearest Dominique said, flipping her extremely long hair over her shoulder. Dominique was immediately in love with the girl's hair.

"I'm Joy," the third girl said. "And that's Brittany," she gestured to the last girl, who was digging through her trunk frantically.

"I think I forgot one of my textbooks," she said, panicked. "I can't find it anywhere!"

"I'm sure it won't be a big deal," Joy assured her. "You can just have your parents owl it to you."

"Oh! No, it's okay actually, I found it," Brittany said, emerging from her trunk victoriously.

Dominique looked around and realized that their trunks had all been brought up and bed assignments had been pre-determined. Holly was on the far right, with Brittany on her right and Joy directly ahead of where Dominique was standing. Brooke had the bed next to Joy, which meant that Dominique was going to be in the bed on the far left, between Brooke and the wall.

She headed over to her designated bed and laid her trunk on the ground, opening it up and pulling her things out as she tried to decide how she wanted to arrange herself. She had a side table with a drawer and a cupboard next to her bed, and since the left-hand side of her bed was just a wall, she could spread her belongings out however she wanted without disrupting anyone.

As she unpacked, she started to think about Victoire again. She felt bad for the way they'd left things and she hated to go to bed knowing that they were on uncertain terms.

"I'll be right back," she declared, standing up and heading for the door.

She was pretty sure she'd passed Victoire's dorm on the way up, so she descended, checking the doors until she found the one that said _third year_ on it. She pushed the door open to find that there was only one occupant; a girl who was pinning up Quidditch posters all over the wall above her bed.

"Hi," Dominique said tentatively.

"Hey," the girl said, hopping down. "Did you need something?" she asked.

"I was looking for my sister, Victoire Weasley," Dominique replied.

"Oh yeah, she'd not back yet," the girl said. "I'm Caitlin."

Dominique nodded. She'd assumed as much from the Quidditch posters.

"Do you know when she'll be here?" Dominique asked.

"Sorry kid," Caitlin shrugged. "Couldn't tell you."

"Thanks anyway," Dominique sighed, returning to her own dorm, disappointed. Should she wait and go back down in a bit? Or should she just let it go for the night?

"Hey, what's wrong?" Brooke asked when Dominique returned.

"Oh it's nothing," Dominique muttered. "I think I'm having a fight with my sister, and I was hoping to make things right, but she wasn't in her dorm."

"Maybe you should just go wait for her in the common room," Brooke suggested.

"Yeah, thanks," Dominique said. "I think I will."

Dominique descended to the common room and sat in a nearby armchair to wait for her sister. She wasn't seated for long though, before some seventh year came over and started yelling at her.

"You can't be down here, first year," the girl said.

"Why not?" Dominique returned. "It's my common room as much as yours."

"The upperclassmen are having a party," the girl replied. "No first years allowed. You have to leave. Besides, it's passed your bedtime."

"It's like, eight o'clock," Dominique said. "And besides, I don't have a bedtime."

"You still have to leave," the girl insisted.

"Yeah, yeah," Dominique muttered. It wasn't like she wanted to stay at the party anyway. "I'll leave in a minute; I'm just waiting for my sister."

"Dominique!" her sister's voice cried, coming from behind her. Dominique turned around just in time to see her sister appear from the girls' staircase.

"You're the sister?" the seventh year girl asked.

"Yeah, why? What's wrong?" Victoire asked.

"I told her the party is for upperclassmen only, but she insisted on waiting for you," the girl said.

"Okay seriously?" Victoire asked. "Not everyone's even back from the feast yet. Have you ever thought about, oh I don't know, giving us all like, twenty minutes before you start kicking us out?"

"Just clear out before you overstay your welcome," the girl muttered, walking away.

"Victoire!" Dominique exclaimed, once it was just the two of them. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Yeah, I heard," her sister replied. "Listen, I'm sorry about earlier, on the train…"

"Oh whatever," Dominique said, waving her hand in front of her face. "I was being annoying and you just wanted to hang out with your friends."

"So you're not mad at me?" Victoire asked.

"I was," Dominique admitted. "But I'm not anymore."

"Well that's a relief," Victoire smiled, wrapping Dominique up in a hug.

DdDdDdDdDdD

When Dominique returned to her dorm, Brooke was waiting to hear how it had gone. Dominique confirmed that everything between her and her sister had been worked out. Since Joy, Holly, and Brittany had claimed the three showers, Brooke and Dominique sat on their beds and talked for a while until it was their turn to use the bathroom.

The following morning, Dominique hurried to get ready and packed her bag before hurrying down to the Great Hall for breakfast with Miles.

"How was your sleep?" he asked.

"Fantastic!" Dominique replied. "These Hogwarts mattresses are amazing!"

After breakfast, they attended their first classes. As Victoire had promised her, the Professors mostly just introduced the courses. Nothing seemed too difficult yet. By the end of the first week, Dominique was feeling good about being at Hogwarts. She and Miles were great friends, she and Brooke were becoming closer, and so far she was staying completely on top of all her classes. Things were looking good.


	2. October

Chapter 2: October 2013

As September came to an end and October began, things at Hogwarts were good. Dominique was having a great time with her new classmates and all her worries from the summer seemed to have disappeared.

"Did anyone get an answer for question four?" Brittany Philbrick asked.

All the Gryffindor first years were gathered together in the common room, working on their Herbology homework. It was nice, Dominique thought, that they all got along so well – not like her sister with her classmates.

"Yeah, it's dragon dung," one of the boys, Tom Kelley, replied.

"Oh seriously?" Holly exclaimed. "I think I totally messed this up, I'm going to need a fresh sheet of parchment."

"Oh here, I have one," Timothy Coote offered, reaching into his bag and passing it over.

"Thanks," Holly smiled, balling the written on parchment up and tossing it in the direction of the fire. It missed and landed on the floor next to it, prompting some fourth years sitting by the fire to yell at them about not throwing things.

"Guys, did you see?" Brooke said excitedly, joining them at the table.

"See what?" Zeke Aldin asked.

"Flying lessons start on Thursday!" Brooke cried excitedly.

"Oh no!" Dominique groaned.

"How are you not excited?" Brooke asked in confusion. "This is the best thing ever. I've been waiting my whole life to learn to fly."

"Oh, you know…" Dominique muttered, wishing everyone would stop looking at her. "I'm just not that excited about it, alright? I mean, it's just one more class we have to attend."

"It's hardly History of Magic!" Tom pointed out. "These are _flying_ lessons. Where we get to learn to fly on brooms."

"Yes, I understand the concept," Dominique said dryly. "I just don't think it's going to be my thing."

"How can you know before you even try?" Miles wondered. "At least give the lessons a chance."

"Well it's not like I can blow them off or anything, now can I?" Dominique demanded.

"Hey, calm down," Brooke said when Dominique started getting defensive. "So you're not into flying, so what? It's fine."

Dominique sat back, relieved. "Thank you," she said, sending Brooke a smile.

The first years went back to their homework and after a few seconds, Joy was asking a question about the uses of some plant or other.

"You really aren't excited about flying?" Miles muttered to Dominique so that only she could hear him.

"No, I'm not," Dominique said, glaring at her friend. "And I'll thank you not to bring it up again."

Miles backed off and Dominique made it look like she was extremely absorbed in her work. It was too embarrassing to admit in front of all her friends, but the reason she wasn't looking forward to flying class was that she was afraid of heights. She knew as soon as she got on the broom, she was going to freak out and everyone was going to find out, but she wasn't ready for them to start making fun of her quite yet.

DdDdDdDdDdD

The first year Gryffindors' first flying lesson was on the first Thursday in October. In her fathers' day, houses had been paired together to learn how to fly, but ever since Madam Volant had replaced Madam Hooch, she had changed it so that she taught each house separately in order to devote more time to each individual student. When it came to flying, you couldn't be too careful. Dominique could remember the stories her uncles liked to tell about when Professor Longbottom had flown for the first time – he'd had to go to the hospital wing. Ever since Madam Volant had taken over, there had been no more accidents.

"Alright students, pick a broom and then form a line down by the south goalposts, laying the broom down on the ground next to you," Madam Volant instructed, opening up the Hogwarts broom shed so that the students could take their pick of old brooms. They were on the Quidditch pitch, which was even more uncomfortable for Dominique, because there was a smattering of older students sitting in the stands who were going to see her utterly humiliate herself.

"This is so exciting!" Brooke squealed, grabbing an old Nimbus 2000 and running down to the goalpost.

When Dominique finally got into the shed, she grabbed the first broom she saw – a Comet 260 – and got out of there as fast as she could.

"Are you sure that's the broom you want to learn on?" Miles asked, seeing her choice.

"It's not like it's going to make much of a difference which broom I pick," Dominique muttered.

"Well, actually – " Miles began.

"Seriously," Dominique interrupted, before he could give her a lecture about brooms and their respective characteristics. "I don't care."

She stalked off to the goalposts and laid her broom down next to Brooke.

"Listen," Brooke said. "I know you're not all that thrilled about flying lessons, but I just wanted to say good luck anyway."

"Thanks," Dominique said. She could use all the luck she could get. "I'd offer you good luck, but you look like you were born to fly."

"Alright students," Madam Volant began the lesson now that everyone was lined up. Dominique glanced down the line to find that Miles had picked the furthest place from her to stand. She sighed, knowing that she was going to have to apologize later for being short with him. "Now first thing's first, you have to make a connection with your broom by calling it, so raise your right arm over your broom and command it to rise by saying the word 'up'."

Obediently, Dominique did as she was told, but nothing happened. For a moment, she panicked, because Brooke's broom had risen almost immediately, but a quick scan of the class told her that only two people had succeeded on the first try – Brooke and Tom.

"That's alright, just keep trying until you get it," Madam Volant encouraged.

Dominique repeated the command, still to no avail. She glanced down and saw that three more students – including Miles – had succeeded on their second try. She tried a few more times, but soon she was the only one left who couldn't get her broom to rise for her.

"That's alright dear," Madam Volant assured her. "Some people just need to work a little harder to build that connection. You keep working on it while I lead the rest of the class in a few warm-up exercises.

While the rest of the first year Gryffindors mounted their brooms, Dominique continued to mutter the command over and over again, becoming more and more aggressive when it still refused even to twitch or move even in the slightest. Soon, her classmates were engaging in a slow lap of the pitch while Dominique still couldn't grab hold of her broom.

"Why won't it listen to me?" Dominique demanded angrily when Madam Volant came over to see what the problem was. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong."

"Perhaps you say the word, but you do not really mean it," Madam Volant suggested.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Dominique asked.

"You need to do more than command the broom to rise," Madam Volant explained. "You have to will it to rise. You have to desire it. I don't think you desire it. Am I right?"

"Maybe a little," Dominique muttered.

"And why might that be?" Madam Volant asked.

"I don't want it to rise because I don't want to learn to fly," Dominique replied.

"And why don't you want to learn to fly?" Madam Volant asked.

Dominque hesitated.

"Don't worry, I'm here to teach, not to judge," Madam Volant assured her.

Dominique took a deep breath. "I'm afraid of heights," she confessed.

"Alright," Madam Volant said. "Well Dominique, the way I see it, you have two options. The first one, is we can work together and try to conquer your fear."

"What's the second one?" Dominique asked, really not liking the sound of the first.

"The second option is that I can write you a note exempting you from all flying lessons. You'll be required to receive final approval from the Headmistress of course, but it has been done before."

"I think I like the sound of the second option," Dominique declared.

"Are you sure?" Madam Volant asked. "You could give it a try and then if it's too much for you, you can always stop later."

"No," Dominique said. "I'm sure now."

"Alright," Madam Volant said with a sigh. She pulled out her wand and waved it in the air, producing a letter, signed by her and everything, and handed it to Dominique. "Bring this to the Headmistress' office right away. If she signs off, then you never have to learn to fly."

"Thanks," Dominique smiled, taking the note.

"And don't forget to put your broom away," Madam Volant added, hopping on her broom and flying down to the opposite end of the pitch to see how the rest of the class was doing.

Overjoyed at the sudden turn of events, Dominique threw her broom back in the broom shed and hurried up the castle, taking the stairs two at a time as she hurried to see the Headmistress. When she arrived, she realized she didn't have the password, so she asked the gargoyle to tell the Headmistress that Madam Volant had sent her. She waited a moment, and then the stairs began to move, so she hopped on and waited impatiently to reach the top.

"Dominique!" Headmistress McGonagall greeted her when she entered the office. "What can I do for you today?"

"I have a note from Madam Volant exempting me from flying lessons," Dominique said, placing the note on the Headmistress' desk. "She said I had to get you to sign off on it as well."

"I see," the Headmistress said, peering at the note through her spectacles. "Well this seems to be in order. I just have to ask you a few questions."

"Alright," Dominique said.

"Now you understand that if you don't complete your flying lessons, you won't receive your flight certification?" the Headmistress asked.

"Yes," Dominique replied.

"And you realize that this means you will not be permitted to purchase a broom or to register one in your name?" she continued.

"Yes," Dominique repeated.

"And are you aware that I will have to put a note in your permanent record, which will be available for any future employers to see?" she asked.

"You mean it could affect my getting a job later on?" Dominique asked. "That doesn't seem fair."

"It will only be applicable to jobs which may require you to travel somewhere on a broom," the Headmistress assured her.

"Oh," Dominique said. "Well then that's fine, I wouldn't want that kind of job anyway."

"Very well," the Headmistress said, signing the slip. "You are officially exempt from flying lessons. If you should change your mind during your time at Hogwarts, you should know that you are always welcome to join a class at any time to receive your certification, and if you decide to pursue it later on, there are services offered at the Ministry of Magic in the Department of Transportation, Broom Division."

"Don't worry, that's not going to be an issue," Dominique assured her.

"Well then congratulations," Headmistress McGonagall said. "You are free to go."

"Thanks!" Dominique said happily.

She returned to the common room to discover that with her classmates all down at the pitch learning to fly, there were no other first years to hang out with in the common room.

"Hey Vic," she said, noticing her sister sitting at a nearby table working on some homework.

"Dominique!" Victoire said in surprise. "Aren't you supposed to be having your first flying lesson?" she asked.

"Nope," Dominique said with a smile.

"Really?" Victoire asked, getting up. "I could have sworn the bulletin board said – "

"Sit down," Dominique said, grabbing her sister by the arm and forcing her back into her chair. "Yes, flying lessons started today, but I got exempted."

"Seriously?" Victoire gasped. "Oh, I'm so jealous! How did you manage that?"

"Well you know how I'm afraid of heights?" Dominique asked.

"Really? That's all you had to say? I could have done that," Victoire grumbled.

"No, it was more than that," Dominique insisted. "My fear of heights prevented me from being able to call the broom into my hand, which Madam Volant noticed, which is why she exempted me."

"Oh," Victoire muttered. "Yeah that wouldn't have worked for me. I got my broom to rise in like, four tries I think."

"It's not like it even matters anymore," Dominique pointed out. "You have your flight certification, so unless you wanted to, you never have to fly again."

"That is true," Victoire agreed. "But it was a pretty terrible experience."

"I'm sure it was," Dominique rolled her eyes. Her sister was probably just upset because flying had messed up her hair or something.

DdDdDdDdDdD

"You got an exemption?" Brooke cried loudly when Dominique told her what had happened to her.

"Shh, why are you screaming?" Dominique hissed. "Yeah, the Headmistress signed off on it and everything."

"Just because you weren't too excited to fly?" Brooke asked. "Doesn't that seem a little excessive to you?"

"No," Dominique said. "No, it doesn't seem excessive at all."

"Okay, I'm sorry," Brooke said, holding her hands up in surrender. "Obviously, Madam Volant wouldn't have exempted you unless you had a good reason for not wanting to learn to fly."

"Thank you," Dominique said.

"So what's the reason?" Brooke asked. "Did your uncle die from a broom-related accident? Were you traumatized from the experience of seeing his body lying on the ground, broken and twisted?"

"You're a little deranged, you know that right?" Dominique laughed.

"Yeah," Brooke replied. "But admit it, it's way more fun being friends with a deranged person than with a sane one, right?"

"Sure," Dominique replied. "Definitely."

DdDdDdDdDdD

"Hey Miles," Dominique said, sitting down at the library table where her friend was studying alone.

"Oh, hi Dominique," Miles muttered, looking up for a second and then returning to what appeared to be a potions essay.

"Listen, I just wanted to apologize," Dominique said, forcing him to stop what he was doing and look at her. "I was rude and I shouldn't have been. I was tense and nervous about the prospect of having to fly and I took it out on you and that wasn't fair."

"It's alright," Miles shrugged. "I probably overreacted anyway. It's not like it was that big a deal."

"No, you were right to be upset," Dominique said. "I was just too caught up in myself to think about anyone else at the time."

"If I say I forgive you will you stop trying to explain yourself?" Miles asked.

"That depends," Dominique said. "Do you really forgive me, or are you saying it to get me to leave you alone?"

"I really forgive you," Miles assured her.

"Then I'll stop explaining," Dominique replied.

"So I heard they exempted you?" Miles asked.

"How did you hear that?" Dominique gasped. "I only told Brooke and Victoire so far!"

"Tom heard you telling Brooke in the common room. Actually, he says the whole common room heard her scream it out at the top of her lungs," Miles replied.

"Of course he did," Dominique sighed.

"So what's your reason?" Miles asked.

"What do you mean?" Dominique replied with a question of her own.

"For the exemption," he clarified. "They don't just exempt people without a valid reason."

"Oh, well actually, it's because when I was little, my uncle was flying and he had an accident and died," Dominique said, making sure to use a voice that made it clear she was kidding. "I'll never get the picture of his twisted, mangled body lying on the ground out of my mind."

"Seriously?" Miles asked, his eyes widening.

"No!" Dominique cried, shaking her head. "Of course not. How many people do you think die from broom-related accidents?"

"Well, my mom for one," Miles said, hanging his head and staring out the window sadly.

"Oh, wait seriously?" Dominque asked, feeling terrible for turning his mother's accident into a joke. "I'm so sorry, I had no idea or I never would have said that – "

"I'm totally kidding," Miles laughed, turning away from the window with a grin on his face. "Man did I fool you!"

"That wasn't very nice," Dominique accused.

"Sue me," Miles retorted.

"I might, my Aunt Audrey is a lawyer," Dominique warned.

"Really?" Miles faltered.

"Well she used to be, before she had my cousin Molly," Dominique amended. "She stopped practicing to raise her and her sister Lucy, but she could totally sue you if I asked her to."

"You won't though, right?" Miles asked.

"Oh my gosh, you take things way too seriously," Dominique cried.

Thankfully, the conversation moved on, away from the topic of flying lessons and exemptions. Dominique was thankful Miles had let the topic drop, because she was afraid she might end up offending him again my refusing to give her reason for not wanting to take them.

Later that night in the common room, when her other room mates started giving her heck about bailing, Brooke came to the rescue, claiming that it was none of their business if Dominique didn't want to learn to fly and that clearly she didn't want to talk about it and to leave her alone. She never heard a word from the other boys, and could only assume Brooke had given them a stern talking-to as well.

"Hey, thanks Brooke," Dominique said when they were alone together in the bathroom.

"No big deal," Brooke assured her. "Your business is your business. If you don't want to share it with a bunch of people you've known for barely over a month, then you definitely shouldn't have to."

"It's not that I don't trust you guys – "

"Really," Brooke assured her. "I wasn't trying to guilt you or anything. There's plenty I wouldn't want you to know, even though I think you're pretty cool."

"Oh, like what?" Dominique asked jokingly.

"Well don't tell the other girls," Brooke said in a fake whisper. "But there's a hinkypunk in my trunk."

"Wow," Dominique said. "That's one of the worst lies I've ever heard. At least put some effort into it. A hinkypunk couldn't live in your trunk, they live in bogs or swamps."

"Where did you learn so much about hinkypunks?" Brooke asked.

"My cousin," Dominique sighed. "She insisted on teaching me all this stuff last year, claiming that I couldn't start Hogwarts without knowing anything."

"About hinkypunks?" Brooke said.

"Yeah," Dominique said. "She's a little nuts with the reading."

"You'd think she'd know that you don't need to know that sort of stuff coming into first year," Brooke muttered.

"She's actually a year younger than me," Dominique said. "She hasn't started yet."

"Wow!" Brooke exclaimed. "So your younger cousin was teaching you about hinkypunks."

"It was not my idea," Dominique muttered. "But it was either let Molly teach me about magical creatures, or play with a seven-year-old and eight-year-old."

"I'd have picked playing with the little kids honestly," Brooke said.

"Yeah, in retrospect, that probably would have been the better choice," Dominique agreed.


	3. November

Chapter 3: November 2013

Charms was turning out to be Dominique's favorite class of all. For one thing, it was practical, but in a non-threatening way. For another thing, Professor Flitwick taught at a pace slightly less fast than Dominique's other Professors, which she liked, because she was able to take the time she needed to really absorb what he was saying. For another thing, Dominique was simply good at it.

They'd just started learning their first charm – the levitation charm – and by the end of the session, Dominique remained the only one to have successfully mastered it.

"No matter," Professor Flitwick assured everyone else. "Most students need a little more practice when they're first starting out. Try to levitate some light objects tonight, and we'll give it another go tomorrow."

As the students filed out, thankful to be done with their last class of the day, the Gryffindors flocked around Dominique.

"How did you do it?" Grant Arnold asked. "You got it on like, your fourth try!"

Dominique shrugged. "I'm not really sure," she admitted. "I just pictured the feather rising, and when I cast the spell, it rose."

"You have to help us," Brittany insisted. "If we can't learn this, how are we supposed to do harder spells later on."

"I'm sure you just need some practice," Dominique said. "But I can help as best as I can."

"Thanks Dominique, you're a lifesaver," Joy said in relief.

DdDdDdDdDdD

After dinner that night, the first years claimed a long table in the common room and set to practicing the spell. Timothy had borrowed a handful of feathers from Professor Flitwick to practice on, so he laid them out on the table and everyone looked expectantly at Dominique.

"Am I supposed to say something?" Dominique asked.

"Yeah, tell us what to do," Holly replied.

"Oh, okay," Dominique muttered, not really expecting that she'd be leading the practice session. "Well let's see… I guess what I do is I hold my wand like this…" she gripped her wand, holding it straight out in front of her, pointing directly at the feather. To her surprise, everyone copied the motion. "Right," she mumbled, a little caught off guard. "Well then I imagine the feather rising off the table, and I say the words and I do the wand motion just like Professor Flitwick taught us…" She focused on her feather, imagining it levitating off the table and cast the spell. Slowly, the feather began to rise, following the direction of her wand. "And there you go," she finished.

"That's it?" Zeke asked in dismay. "That's basically what Professor Flitwick's shown us dozens of times."

Dominique faltered and then thought back to the conversation she'd had with Madam Volant on the Quidditch field weeks ago.

"I guess, you also have to want the feather to rise," Dominique said. Though she wasn't entirely sure the same principle applied here, she figured it couldn't hurt.

"You're saying we don't want it to work?" Zeke challenged.

"No," Dominique said. "I'm saying that when you cast it, you can't just be sitting there passively wondering whether the spell's going to work. Remember how excited you all were to learn to fly? When you called for the broom to rise into your hand, you were actively willing it to rise, right?" She was met with a few nods, so she continued. "So try and re-create that willingness and re-direct it towards the spell. Expect the feather to rise – desire the feather to rise – and it'll rise."

"We're really supposed to believe that?" Zeke asked. "Weren't you the only one of us who _didn't_ learn to fly? What would you know about it?"

"A lot more than you might think," Dominique said, her defences rising.

"Let's just try it and see if it works before we start turning on each other," Miles suggested in an attempt to keep the peace.

"Thanks," Dominique muttered to him as everyone did as they were told and began to try the spell again.

At first, nothing happened, and Dominique was a little disappointed. She'd really thought the analogy would work for them. Suddenly, she felt something tickling her nose and she looked down to find that it was a feather, being moved purely by magic.

"Who's doing this?" Dominique cried excitedly, looking down to see which feather had moved. "Miles, you got it!" she cried, turning to her friend with a huge smile on her face.

"It worked," Miles said. "Your whole thing about willing it to rise – you were right, I think before I didn't think I could do the spell, so when I cast it, I was expecting it to stay put, which is exactly what happened."

"Amazing!" Dominique said. "Alright, the rest of you keep trying then, because obviously it works."

Dominique could see Zeke frowning, but she chose to ignore it.

"Here Miles, let's try to lift some heavier things, like these inkwell," Dominique suggested, grabbing two inkwells from her bag and placing them on the table in front of them. It took a lot more effort, and she couldn't levitate them quite as high as the feather, but eventually, she got it.

"I wonder how hard it would be to levitate a chair?" Dominique wondered. "Or a person?"

"I would definitely suggest you wait on that one," Miles warned. "Professor Flitwick did say not to try and lift anything too heavy unless he was supervising. We could do permanent damage."

"It's not like we're lifting weights or anything," Dominique pointed out. "We're not going to pull a muscle. If anything, it just won't work."

"I really think it's a bad idea," Miles said. "What if the stress of it weakens your magic?"

"Can that really happen?" Dominique asked.

"I think so," Miles replied. "It's why we don't learn certain spells until we're older and our magic is stronger – because if we tried them now, we'd drain ourselves too quickly."

"I thought it was because the theory got harder," Dominique said.

"Well that too," Miles allowed.

They were interrupted when Timothy's stomach grumbled loud enough for the whole common room to hear.

"Hungry?" Tom joked.

"I guess I didn't have enough to eat at dinner," Timothy said unabashedly.

"You had three servings of potatoes," Brittany accused him.

"What can I say?" Timothy shrugged. "I'm a growing boy."

"You sound like my brother," Dominique groaned.

"Yeah?" Timothy asked. "What year is he in?"

"He's nine," Dominique said, raising her eyebrows. "And it wasn't a compliment." Timothy simply shrugged again.

"Hey, doesn't the Great Hall serve food until like, eight?" Brooke asked.

"You're right!" Dominique agreed. "Why don't I go down and get some snacks while the rest of you keep practicing?"

"I'll come with you," Miles volunteered. "You'll need the help carrying the food back, and I've already cast the spell successfully a few times now, so I could use the break."

"Okay great," Dominique agreed. "We'll be back soon!"

"You'd better hurry!" Tom called after them. "It's five to eight!"

She and Miles exited the common room and hurried down the stairs, determined to make it before the food disappeared. Finally, they arrived on the main floor and threw open the doors to the Great Hall, just in time to see all the food shimmering out of existence in the same way it appeared on the plates at the beginnings of major feasts.

"Oh no!" Miles cried. "We missed it!"

"Ugh, now Timothy's stomach is going to growl all night," Dominique complained.

"Why do they have to take the food away at eight when curfew isn't until nine?" Miles wondered in frustration.

"It's so unfair," Dominique agreed, thinking of the kitchen right below them full of food being disposed of by hordes of house elves. "Hey, wait a minute," she said. "I have an idea."

"What?" Miles asked with a frown.

"There's a kitchen right below us," Dominique relayed her thoughts. "And it's full of food – the same food that was up here seconds ago."

"Yeah," Miles said. "But it's not like we can just walk into the kitchen and ask for food."

"Why not?" Dominique asked.

"A few reasons actually," Miles said, giving Dominique a look that said he thought she was crazy. "For one thing, we don't know where it is, besides downstairs. For another thing, we don't know how to get in, even if we knew where it was. And finally, how are we supposed to know the elves wouldn't just kick us out and tattle to Professor Longbottom and make us lose house points for being in places we shouldn't be?"

"Oh don't worry about getting into trouble," Dominique reassured him. "My uncles used to steal food from the kitchens all the time. Though, it wasn't really stealing since the elves were always overjoyed to give them food."

"Okay, so we won't get in trouble," Miles allowed. "But we still don't know where it is or how to get in."

"Sure we do," Dominique said. "I overheard my Uncle George talking about it with my Aunt Ginny one time. We just have to go downstairs and find the painting of the bowl of fruit and tickle the pear."

"You expect me to believe that we can get into the kitchens by tickling a pear?" Miles asked.

"Come on, I'll prove it," Dominique said, leading the way down to the basement floor.

As they walked down the hallway searching for the painting of the bowl of fruit, Dominique started to wonder if this was for real. Maybe Uncle George had known she was listening and had said what he said to mess with her – he was always playing practical jokes like that. At this point though, Dominique just had to keep going and hope her uncle had been telling the truth.

"Is this the painting?" Miles asked, pointing to the painting in question. It was, exactly as it had been described, simply a painting of a bowl of fruit.

"Looks like it," Dominique said, stepping forward and identifying the green pear on the right-hand side of the bowl. "Here goes nothing," she said. She reached out her finger and stroked it up and down across the length of the pear. At first, nothing happened, but then it started to squirm and soon, little squeaks could be heard, which Dominique could only assume was supposed to be the sound of the pear laughing. It started to heat up, and in a panic, Dominique removed her finger and stepped back. Slowly, the pear began to change shape, going from an oval shape to a circular one, and then it began to protrude out from the painting to become a doorknob.

"Well I guess it worked," Miles said, staring at the doorknob in awe. "After you," he gestured to the door chivalrously, but Dominique was pretty sure he was just afraid to go in first.

She stepped forward and grasped the doorknob, thankful that it wasn't hot, and she turned it, pushing it in and taking a step inside.

"Hello Miss!" a house elf greeted her as soon as she entered. "How can Guppy help you today?" the elf, presumably named Guppy, asked.

"Well my friend and I – " Dominique gestured to Miles, " – were just up in the Great Hall hoping to grab a snack, but we just barely missed the deadline and all the food disappeared before we could grab any."

"Miss is wanting food?" Guppy asked. "We have lots of leftover stew if Miss and Sir is wanting some stew."

"We were actually thinking more like some study snacks," Dominique said. "Something we could take back to our common room. Maybe enough for… ten people?"

"Right away Miss!" Guppy cried, disappearing into the crowd of house elves, all running around and shouting instructions at each other.

"Wow," Miles said from behind Dominique. "This place is so cool! I bet not a lot of students get the chance to see all this."

"Probably not," Dominique agreed.

Guppy returned with four huge baskets laden with sweets and pastries and little cakes – enough to feed a small army.

"Guppy would have made up a fifth basket, but Guppy knew that Miss and Sir could only carry four, so Guppy put extra in the four baskets," the house elf said proudly.

"Wow!" Dominique exclaimed, seeing the sheer abundance of food that Guppy had brought. "This is fantastic, thank you so much Guppy!"

"It was Guppy's pleasure Miss," Guppy said with a big smile. "And whatever is leftover, Miss and Sir can leave in their common room and Guppy will personally make sure to clean it up tonight when she comes to stoke the fire."

"That's so nice!" Dominique cried.

"That is Guppy's job," Guppy replied.

"Well thanks again," Miles said, speaking to the elf for the first time. "We'd better get going though before we end up breaking curfew."

"Come again Miss and Sir!" Guppy called after them as they returned to the hall and the door shut behind them, the doorknob becoming a pear once again.

"Are you good to carry all that?" Miles asked when they started moving, noticing that Dominique was struggling with her baskets.

"Yeah, it's fine," Dominique assured him. "They're just bulky and awkward to carry, but they're not that heavy."

"Are you sure?" Miles asked. "I could – "

"What?" Dominique asked. "You're already carrying two baskets of your own. Unless you've got a third arm you've neglected to tell me about then we might as well keep going."

Miles chuckled, but allowed Dominique to lead the way back to the common room.

"Food!" Timothy cried when they returned.

"Wow, you brought a lot!" Holly commented. "Are you trying to feed the whole of Gryffindor Tower?"

"We just figured it would be better to bring more than less," Dominique shrugged. "It's not like we have the time to go back down."

"Not to mention the food would be gone by now," Brooke added, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. "How'd you manage to get so much of it before it disappeared?" she asked. "And where did those baskets come from?"

"Oh, these?" Miles asked. "We found them."

"Just lying around in the Great Hall?" Brooke asked. "That's very convenient."

Dominique pulled Brooke aside so that they wouldn't be overheard. "Okay, obviously we didn't get this food from the Great Hall," she admitted.

"Obviously," Brooke said. "But what I want to know is where did it come from?"

"Don't tell the others," Dominique requested. "It's better that not everyone knows, or else they might change things to keep us out."

"Keep us out of where?" Brooke wondered.

"We got the food from the kitchens," Dominique admitted. "My uncle inadvertently taught me how to get in – its in the basement, there's a painting of a pear and you tickle it and it turns into a doorknob."

"Seriously?" Brooke cried. "That's so cool! I wish you'd taken me!"

"Maybe next time," Dominique said. "But seriously, don't tell anyone else."

"Fine," Brooke frowned.

"Hey, aren't you guys going to join us?" Tom asked, noticing that Brooke and Dominique weren't partaking in the food.

"Definitely," Dominique said, hurrying over and grabbing a pastry. "So did anyone else get the spell to work while we were gone?"

"I did!" Holly said proudly. "And so did Grant."

"It was easy once I got past my conviction that I couldn't do it," Grant added. "Your method really works. You should talk to Professor Flitwick about including it in his lessons in the future."

"Oh, I don't think that's necessary," Dominique shook her head. "He's been teaching Charms forever, I'm sure he's tried all the different teaching methods and decided that the one he's doing is the best. I'm just a silly first year."

There was a pecking noise at the window and Brooke disappeared to let the owl in.

"Yeah, but obviously your method works a lot better than whatever he's teaching," Brittany pointed out.

"Come on, well all think it's a good idea," Joy said, looking around at everyone and receiving confirmation that they were all on the same page. "Brooke?" she asked, looking over at the girl who was quietly reading the letter the owl had brought. "Don't you agree?"

"What?" Brooke asked. "Oh, yeah, sure," she said. "Um, I think I'm going to turn in," she said, heading over to the stairs.

"But it's not even nine o'clock yet," Zeke pointed out.

"Yeah, I know, I'm just tired," Brooke said, climbing the stairs and disappearing from sight.

"Well see?" Joy asked, returning to the original topic of conversation. "We all think you should suggest it."

"Fine," Dominique said. "I'll think about it." She knew she wouldn't do it, but if offering to consider it would appease Joy, it was worth saying.

"That's all we're asking," Joy smiled.

DdDdDdDdDdD

Dominique couldn't sleep. It happened occasionally. Some nights, even though her body was exhausted, her mind would be running at top speed and she would be unable to shut her thoughts off long enough even to take a short nap. This was one of those nights. After having tried to fall asleep for three hours, Dominique had decided that it was no use, and so at 1AM, she was sitting up in bed with her back against her pillows, reading the chapter in her History of Magic textbook that had been assigned to be read by Friday.

Next to her, Brooke began to stir, and suddenly she was standing up and walking towards the door.

"Brooke?" Dominique whispered. "What are you doing?"

Brooke didn't respond. Dominique figured she could just be going to the bathroom, but Dominique was bored and had a feeling it was something else, so she got up and followed her.

"Brooke?" she called out, a little louder now. She heard footsteps descending the stairs and hurried down to find Brooke crossing the common room. "Brooke, where are you going?"

Brooke still didn't respond, instead pushing open the portrait hole and climbing out into the castle.

"Brooke, it's after curfew, you're going to get in trouble!" Dominique hissed. "Brooke!"

Her friend was still ignoring her, so making a split-second decision, Dominique hurried out into the hallway after her. "Brooke!" she cried, running towards her friend. "What's going on?" she demanded, sprinting ahead of her friend and stopping directly in front of her.

Brooke's eyes were wide open, but didn't even seem to register Dominique's presence. She simply continued walking around Dominique, continuing on whatever path she was on. Suddenly, it dawned on Dominique – Brooke was sleepwalking.

"Brooke!" Dominique called, hurrying after the girl. "Brooke, you have to wake up!" she cried.

Unfortunately, Brooke still wasn't responding. Dominique knew she had to get Brooke back into the common room before they got caught, but now Brooke was heading to the Grand Staircase.

"Brooke!" Dominique cried. "Stop it! Wake up!"

"Aha!" a voice cried suddenly, causing Dominique to scream. She spun around to find herself face to face with Mr. Clarke. "What do we have here?" he asked.

"My friend is sleepwalking," Dominique explained. "I'm just trying to stop her."

Mr. Clarke pointed his wand at Brooke and a jet of yellow light shot towards her. Immediately, she stopped, shaking her head as she came to.

"Where am I?" she asked in confusion.

"You were sleepwalking," Dominique explained. "I think you were on your way to the Grand Staircase."

"Yeah," Brooke agreed, frowning as she tried to remember her dream. "I was going down to the kitchens. I wanted some cheese."

"Cheese?" Dominique questioned. "You dreamt you wanted cheese?"

"So what if I did?" Brooke challenged. "I can like cheese if I want."

"Alright, fine, you can like cheese," Dominique backed off, not sure why this had struck a chord.

"Girls," Mr. Clarke interrupted. "Are neither of you at all concerned that you've been caught out after hours?"

"You're not going to take points are you?" Dominique asked, dismayed. "Brooke didn't know what she was doing, and I was only trying to stop her."

"I suppose I won't take any points," Mr. Clarke agreed. "But no more sleepwalking."

"How is she supposed to not sleepwalk?" Dominique asked. "It's not like she did it on purpose."

"Go and see Madam Eldridge tomorrow," Mr. Clarke instructed Brooke. "She can give you potions to prevent this from happening again."

"Of course," Brooke agreed, nodding her head furiously.

"And if I find the two of you wandering around after curfew again – " Mr. Clarke warned.

"Don't worry," Dominique assured him. "You won't."

The girls returned to the common room and Dominique began heading back towards the dorms, but Brooke lagged behind.

"Aren't you coming?" Dominique asked.

"No," Brooke said. "I'll only end up sleepwalking again. I'll just wait until morning when I can go see Madam Eldridge," she said, sitting down on the couch by the fire and curling her feet under her.

Dominique began to head towards the dorm again, but something told her there was something more going on.

"Brooke, are you alright?" she asked, taking a seat with her friend on the couch. "You've never sleepwalked before tonight. And you were a little weird earlier too," she noted.

"It's nothing," Brooke said, staring into the fire. Dominique could see tears welling in her friend's eyes and she scooted over and wrapped her arm around her.

"Hey, whatever it is, it's going to be alright," Dominique assured her.

Brooke sniffled, one tear falling, and then another, and then soon she was sobbing.

"It's m-my mom," she said once she'd cried away most of her tears. "That's what the letter was about. S-she'd been sick for a while, and this afternoon, things got worse so my dad took her to St. Mungo's… She died today."

"Oh," Dominique said, at a loss for words. She didn't know what to say. She'd never lost someone close to her and she had no idea to comfort someone who had. Since she didn't know what to say, she decided to hug Brooke harder and just sit with her. "Tell me about her," Dominique said suddenly, not sure where the words came from, but knowing they were the right ones.

"S-she had brown hair," Brooke began. "And green eyes. She was beautiful. And she was really good at baking. Her cookies were the best. I'm going to miss those."

She continued to talk, and Dominque continued to hold her friend as she did, letting her express herself. A few more times, she would just start crying out of nowhere, and Dominique would rub her shoulders. After a few hours, Brooke finally fell asleep on the couch.

Dominique knew the couch must be uncomfortable, but she also knew she was too weak to lift her friend. Quietly, she untangled herself from Brooke and retrieved her wand. Focusing all her energy, she pointed her wand at her friend and cast the levitation spell, raising Brooke into the air and directing her up the stairs and into her bed.

She pulled the covers up over Brooke to her chin and brushed her hair out of her face. She felt so bad for the girl. If Dominique ever lost her mother, she would be devastated.

The next day, Brooke went home to be with her family. The other Gryffindors wondered why she'd left in the middle of the semester, but just as Brooke had done for Dominique with flying, Dominique told them all that it was none of their business and not to ask Brooke when she returned.

Brooke was gone for about a week, and when she returned, she was much quieter than she had been. She didn't study with the group as much, and she took her meals by herself. Dominique felt bad, but also wanted to give her friend her space, if that's what she needed.

One day, when Brooke and Dominique were alone in the dorm, Brooke spoke – one of the first times Dominique had heard her speak since her return.

"Hey, Dominique?" Brooke asked.

"Yeah?" Dominique replied.

"I just wanted to say thanks," Brooke said. "For that night. I really needed someone, and you were there, and it was just way better than being alone."

"Of course," Dominique said. "That's what friends are for."

Brooke smiled. "So do you maybe want to study later?" she asked.

"Sure," Dominique replied, glad to see Brooke was ready to be with people again. "I'd love to."


	4. December

Chapter 4: December 2013

As the Christmas holidays neared, the first years began to get antsy. It was the end of their first semester, and they were eager for a break, and to see their families again soon. Unfortunately, the end of the semester seemed only to mean more and more work, being piled on right up until the end. Dominique had essays to write for Charms, Herbology, Transfiguration, and History of Magic. In Astronomy, Professor Brunwell was insisting that they finish their star charts before they left on holiday, which meant hours in the library researching the stars they were supposed to be mapping in order to recognize them. In Potions, they were preparing to brew the Wiggenweld Potion – only the second potion they would be brewing that year… and the first time hadn't gone too well for Dominique.

As for Defence Against the Dark Arts, Professor Leftbridge had come up with quite the plan for an end-of-semester evaluation. To give the first years their first taste of what it was like to engage in a one-to-one duel, he had organized a duelling tournament. Dominique thought it was a pretty lame idea; they were only going to be using one spell – _flippendo_ , the knockback jinx. Professor Leftbridge thought it was ingenuous though, and so on the final day of classes before the holidays, Dominique found herself nervously filing into Professor Leftbridge's classroom with the rest of her classmates.

The room had been completely rearranged in preparation for the duels. The desks were gone, and chairs were laid out in a row alone the back wall. The center of the room was completely cleared out, clearly the duels would be taking place in front of everybody.

"Alright!" Professor Leftbridge exclaimed excitedly. "Who's ready to duel?"

Miles and the other Gryffindor boys reacted, along with many of the Slytherins and some of the Ravenclaws. Everyone else shrank back, nervous about what was sure to be a huge display of embarrassment.

"First team up; Zeke Aldin vs. Trent Mitchell," the Professor announced.

Zeke rose, exuding confidence, and crossed to one side of the room while his Ravenclaw opponent crossed to the other side to face him.

"Remember, only the knockback jinx is permitted. Your goal is to evade being hit by your opponent by dodging their attack while simultaneously trying to hit them. The duel ends when the first of you is hit," the Professor said, not just for the benefit of the current duelers, but also for the rest of them. "And… begin!"

Immediately, Zeke sent a knockback jinx in Trent's direction, but Trent ducked and the spell hit the wall behind him. While Trent was resuming his position though, Zeke sent another jinx sailing his way and it hit him in the leg, causing him to stumble.

"Zeke wins!" Professor Leftbridge announced gleefully, making a note on the parchment where he apparently was recording the results and keeping track of who was still in the tournament. Trent stared at the ground as he returned to his seat. "Next up; Carly Sutton vs. Hilary Gordon," he announced.

As the Slytherin and Ravenclaw rose to fight, Dominique slid further down in her seat. "That was totally humiliating for Trent," Dominique muttered to Brooke, who was sitting on her right. "It was over in like, two seconds. What if I'm that bad?"

"It'll be fine," Brooke muttered, though her tone betrayed her lack of confidence. "Anyway, I won't think any less of you, no matter how it goes."

"Same goes for you," Dominique agreed as the second duel began.

This one lasted longer than the first, but was still over pretty soon. Hilary won, reclaiming some of the pride Ravenclaw had lost upon Trent's loss. The Slytherins were not very impressed with Carly as she slunk back to her seat and Dominique could only hope her housemates weren't so mean when she inevitably lost.

The winner of this little tournament would be gifted with thirty points for their house, so there was a lot more riding on the duels than personal pride.

The third duel was between a Hufflepuff by the name of Joey Jenkins and a Slytherin named Dylan Becker. When Dylan won, the Hufflepuffs consoled Joey, assuring him that he did his best, while the Slytherins slapped Dylan on the back in congratulations.

Brooke's duel was next. She had been paired with Lorna Pye, from Ravenclaw. They faced off with each other, and as soon as Professor Leftbridge called for the duel to begin, Lorna was on the offensive. It was all Brooke could do to avoid being hit by spell after spell that was being sent her way. After ten minutes of ducking, dodging, and rolling, Brooke was sweating and Lorna had still barely moved.

"You got this Brooke!" Dominque cried from the audience. As she dodged yet another spell, Brooke glanced over and made eye contact with Dominique. Dominique gave her a thumbs up in encouragement, hoping that her friend would win, but knowing that either way, it would be fine.

Noticing Brooke's distraction, Lorna glanced over at the audience and Brooke took the opportunity. She quickly cast the _flippendo_ and it hit her opponent squarely in the chest, sending her flying back into a bookcase.

"Congratulations Brooke!" Professor Leftbridge said while Brooke stood there completely still, shocked that she'd won. "You can take your seat."

Brooke returned to the row of chairs and sat back down with Dominique.

"You did it!" Dominique exclaimed.

"Yeah," Brooke agreed. "I can't believe I won!"

"You're way better than that Lorna girl any day," Dominique assured her.

The next pair was called; a Hufflepuff against a Ravenclaw. The Ravenclaw won almost immediately.

"That's the second Hufflepuff that's lost," Miles muttered to Dominique. He was sitting on her other side. "I hope I get paired with a Hufflepuff."

"Don't say that!" Dominique admonished. "Just because two lost doesn't mean they're all going to. Don't go stereotyping them."

"Why not?" Miles asked. "We've watched them practice in class, none of them are all that great at the spell."

"Stop talking like that," Dominique insisted. "You sound like a Slytherin."

"Hey!" Miles cried. "Now who's stereotyping, huh?"

Dominique crossed her arms, refusing to continue talking to Miles when he was annoying her like this.

Miles ended up getting his wish. For his first match, he was paired with Samuel Fletwock, one of the Hufflepuff boys. The duel was over practically before it started. Samuel couldn't get the spell to work when he tried to cast it, and while he was busy staring at his wand instead of his opponent, Miles hit him with the spell straight in the stomach.

As the duels went on, Dominique waited for her name to be called, becoming more and more impatient as time went on. Holly faced off against a girl from Slytherin and beat her. Timothy lost to a Ravenclaw and then Joy lost to a Slytherin. Brittany beat the Hufflepuff she was paired with and Tom beat the Slytherin he'd duelled. Finally, a Hufflepuff did win when Grant lost to Carter Hanson. Later, Zoey Harper became the second Hufflepuff winner, beating Karen Bonell from Ravenclaw.

Dominique was wondering if she was ever going to be called, when finally, Professor Leftbridge announced that hers would be the final match of the preliminaries. She would be duelling Michelle Markson, a Hufflepuff. Despite her reaction when Miles had said it, Dominique was glad to be paired with this girl. The Hufflepuffs weren't doing too well so far. Hopefully Dominique would be able to win at least this first duel.

On Professor Leftbridge's signal, the duel began. After having watched so many unfold already, Dominique knew she would have the advantage if she attacked first, so she did, casting the spell almost as soon as the duel began. Michelle had to duck low, and ended up finding herself losing her balance and falling on the floor. Taking the opportunity, Dominique send a second spell her way and hit her mark.

"Congratulations to our final preliminary victor, Dominique!" Professor Leftbridge announced as Dominique and Michelle took their seats.

"Good job!" Brooke smiled when Dominique returned to her seat.

"Not very sporting, was it though?" Miles asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dominique challenged.

"You jinxed her while she was on the floor, completely defenceless," Miles said. "You could have at least let her regain her footing."

"Oh right," Dominique muttered. "Because in a real duel, you let your opponent recover before jinxing them." She rolled her eyes. "I won that duel fair and square and you know it."

The second round of the tournament begun then. Brittany was called first and was paired with Catherine Flint, from Slytherin. After seeing Catherine's previous duel against Daniella Lewson, Dominique knew Brittany didn't stand a chance.

She was right. Brittany went down within five minutes and Catherine arrogantly strode back to her seat, her nose in the air, as if fighting Brittany had been beneath her.

"Don't worry Brittany," Dominique assured the girl as she passed in front of her seat. "You fought really well out there."

"Thanks," Brittany shrugged, apparently not convinced.

The next fight was between Leanna Mitchell, from Ravenclaw, and Summer Snow, from Slytherin. It was one of the more exciting duels they'd had yet, with both girls giving and receiving from each other equally. It wasn't clear to Dominique who was going to win until Leanna just barely failed to dodge one of Summer's attacks and went down.

"That was exciting," Miles commented, crossing his arms and leaning back, as though he were enjoying the show as a common spectator and not also a participant.

"Yeah," Dominique muttered. "Good luck if you get paired with her later on."

"I could take her," Miles scoffed.

Dominique shared a glance with Brooke and the two giggled. Miles liked to act all tough – as if a girl couldn't possibly beat him. Dominique secretly hoped he did get paired with Summer and lose, because then she could make fun of him all the way home on the train the next day.

Brooke was called to duel soon, and was once again paired with a Ravenclaw. She was paired with Hilary Gordon this time, the girl who had fought in one of the earliest duels and been the first Ravenclaw victor. Hilary was much stronger of a fighter than Lorna had been. Brooke dodged her attacks for a while, but the attacks were coming much faster than Lorna's had and Brooke tired quicker this time. In the end, she was hit and embarrassedly hurried back to her seat next to Dominque.

"That was awful!" Brooke cried under her breath as Holly rose to fight Zoey Harper, the only Hufflepuff left (Carter Hanson had been beaten by Tom in the duel right before Brooke's).

"No it wasn't," Dominique reassured her. "You fought really well, she was just stronger. That's okay. We both knew we weren't going to make it to the finals anyway. Better you lost to Hilary than some arrogant Slytherin who'd have made fun of you."

"I guess," Brooke shrugged, unconvinced.

"Don't worry about it," Dominique said. "Nobody thinks any less of you for losing. It's just how it goes sometimes."

Brooke smiled a half smile. "I guess you're right," she agreed.

The present duel finished and Holly, the proud victor, returned to the Gryffindor section of the seats with a huge smile on her face.

Miles was called next and matched with William Stimpson from Ravenclaw. He didn't pose much of a threat and Miles beat him easily. Dominique knew the only reason he won the preliminaries was that his opponent, a boy from Hufflepuff, hadn't had a clue what he was doing and didn't even dodge the jinx William had sent at him at all.

Dominique's turn was next. She passed Miles as he returned to the seats and he squeezed her shoulder. "You got this," he assured her.

Dominique was paired with Quinn Adams, from Slytherin, and Dominique balked at Quinn's expression.

"I'm going to crush you," Quinn muttered to her as Professor Leftbridge signalled for the duel to begin.

Fearfully, Dominique spun to her left, dodging the first spell Quinn sent her way. She barely had time to recover before Quinn was shooting another jet of blue light her way and she spun to the right this time to avoid it. She danced like that for a minute or two before she remembered she was supposed to be fighting back. She extended her wand to cast the spell, but while she was distracted with thoughts of turning to the offensive, she forgot to maintain her defense and she was hit right in the middle of her chest.

The force of the spell sent her flying backward into the wall and she hit her head hard, sending shooting pain through her skull. She slid to the floor, clutching at her head as Professor Leftbridge declared Quinn the winner. Picking herself up, Dominique stumbled back to her seat as Brooke and Miles looked on in concern.

"Are you alright?" Miles asked. "You're holding your head, did you hurt it?"

"I'm fine," Dominique muttered, heat rushing to her face. This was so embarrassing. Nobody else had hit their head and fallen to the ground.

"Are you sure?" Brooke pressed. "You hit that wall pretty hard."

"Seriously guys, I just have a tiny headache. It's nothing," Dominique assured them.

Brooke and Miles exchanged a look and Dominique rolled her eyes.

"Don't make faces at each other," Dominique insisted. "I'm really fine."

"Alright," Brooke backed off, turning back to watch the duel that was taking place between Zeke and Dylan Becker.

"If it starts to hurt, you'll tell us, right?" Miles asked, checking.

"Sure," Dominique said, knowing it would placate her friend. "I'll tell you if it gets any worse."

"Alright," Miles said, narrowing his eyes but turning back to the duel.

Zeke lost, ending the second round of duels. As the third round began, things began to get even more intense. The weaker duellers had all been eliminated by now, and the ensuing duels were taking longer and were much more exciting.

Tom was called for the first of the third round of duels. He was paired with Noah Radford from Ravenclaw. It was at least twelve minutes before Tom got in the final blow, winning the duel. Hilary Gordon duelled Dylan Becker next, and when the Slytherin boy won, Brooke was glad her defeater had now received what Brooke considered to be her just desserts.

Miles was called next and matched with Sean Weston, from Slytherin. They fought for about four minutes until Sean accidentally dropped his wand, giving Miles the opening he needed to deal the winning blow. Shockingly to Dominique, when Holly went up against Catherine Flint, she managed to win, securing herself a spot in the semi-finals. She hadn't realized how strong Holly was in Defence, and when she saw the look on Holly's face when she returned to her seat, she wondered if Holly had known either.

The final duel of the third round was between Quinn Adams and Summer Snow, both from Slytherin. The girls protested that it wasn't fair they had to fight each other because they were from the same house and it would force a Slytherin to be eliminated from the competition. Professor Leftbridge apologized, but explained that he had run out of options and that they had to duel each other.

As the duel progressed, Dominique wondered if there was animosity between Quinn and Summer, because the ferocity with which they duelled was more than she'd seen with any of the other pairs. In the end, Quinn won, to Dominique's dismay (she'd hoped her defeater would be defeated in the same way Brooke's had) and the girls returned to their seats sullenly.

As the semi-finals began, Professor Leftbridge announced that someone would have to fight twice, because there were five duellers left. Quinn immediately volunteered to fight the extra duel. Professor Leftbridge made the appropriate note on his parchment and announced that in that case, the first duel would be between Quinn and Holly.

Holly and Quinn met in the center of the room, both staring each other down, each confident they were going to win. Holly barely lasted two minutes before she was thrown back and she flushed with embarrassment as she returned to her seat.

"You did better than any of the rest of us," Brooke assured her. "That was really impressive, I mean think about it; you made it to the semi-finals!"

Professor Leftbridge gave Quinn a break then and announced the next duel between Tom and Dylan Becker.

"That means you're going to be up against Quinn!" Dominique hissed to Miles when she realized he was the last contestant in the semi-finals. "Miles you have to beat her. I couldn't bear it if she won."

"Consider her defeated," Miles agreed as Tom successfully hit Dylan in the shoulder, causing him to spin in a little circle.

Miles and Quinn rose even before their names were called. They faced off and on Professor Leftbridge's signal, the duel began. Dominique was on the edge of her seat as they each gave back as good as they were receiving. Quinn began to advance on Miles little by little and Dominique was afraid to watch, assuming that she was going to take him down as she had taken down Joanna Miller from Hufflepuff, and then Dominique, and then Holly after her.

"Dominique look!" Brooke exclaimed, forcing Dominique to look back. Miles had recovered and was advancing on Quinn now. He was casting spells faster than she was, and she was just barely missing his attacks. Finally, Miles hit her on the stomach and she flew back, landing on the floor.

"Wooo!" Dominique cried, ignoring the looks she received from some of her classmates for the exclamation. "Congratulations!" she cried.

"Well that was certainly exciting, wasn't it?" Professor Leftbridge asked. "Well then, I suppose that means it's time for the finals!"

Tom rose, and strode out to replace Quinn as Miles' opponent.

"Is there any point in them duelling?" Grant asked from the seats. "It's a Gryffindor victory either way."

"Of course they're going to duel!" Zeke answered in place of their Professor. "You would have us stop right before the finals?"

Brooke and Dominique leaned forward as Miles and Tom clasped hands and Miles muttered something to Tom, too low for anyone else to hear. Tom nodded and they smiled at each other before stepping back and holding their wands out.

"Who're you rooting for?" Brooke asked Dominique as the duel began.

"Miles of course," Dominique replied, as though it was obvious. "He's my best friend, apart from you. Why, who're you rooting for?"

"I don't know," Brooke replied, distressed. "They're both good guys."

"They are," Dominique agreed.

The duel continued longer than any of the others. Miles and Tom were evenly matched and it showed. Checking the time, Dominique realized class had ended two minutes earlier, but nobody dared move from their seats as the two boys continued to duel. Sixth years gathered outside the door, some peering in to watch the end of the show.

Finally, just as Dominique was wondering if the duel would ever end, Miles stumbled and Tom's jinx hit him right in the side. The Gryffindors cheered and ran out to congratulate Tom as Professor Leftbridge declared him the winner and awarded him the thirty points for Gryffindor.

"It was a good fight," Dominique said, going over to Miles instead of Tom with the rest. "It was really close."

Miles nodded. "Tom is a really good dueller," he said, walking over to join the group that was congratulating Tom.

"Alright everyone, you'd better get to your next class before Professor Tonks gets mad at me for keeping you too long," Professor Leftbridge called out.

Dominique hurried to gather her things and follow the others out. The transfiguration class was at least five minutes away and they had less time than that to get there without being late.

Brooke caught up with her in the hall and gestured behind. "Look," she said, pointing.

Dominique turned back to find Miles and Tom walking together, laughing amicably.

"I think that duel might have just forged a new friendship," Brooke said.

Dominique nodded and watched as Miles passed them and walked to transfiguration with Tom. She felt a sudden pang at the knowledge that Miles was suddenly so friendly with Tom. She realized she was jealous. While all the first year Gryffindors were friends, for the most part, she had been Miles' closest friend since the train. She didn't like the idea that she might be being replaced.

"Come on," she said, steering Brooke toward the transfiguration classroom. "We don't want to be late."


	5. January

Chapter 5: January 2014

"Had a good holiday?" Brooke asked when Dominique entered the train compartment.

"Yeah," Dominique replied. "You?"

"Alright I guess," Brooke shrugged.

Dominique frowned, wondering why her friend looked sad and then realized it would have been Brooke's first Christmas without her mother.

"I wonder where everyone else is," Dominique wondered aloud, changing the subject. She hadn't seen Miles or any of the other first year Gryffindors when she was boarding the train.

"I don't know, I haven't seen them," Brooke replied.

Dominique shrugged. "Oh well," she said. "We'll find them eventually. Wanna play exploding snap?"

"Sure," Brooke agreed as Dominique opened her trunk and produced the deck Victoire had bought her for Christmas.

DdDdDdDdDdD

When the train finally pulled into Hogsmeade station, Brooke and Dominique descended onto the platform and began making their way towards the carriages that would bring them up to the school. As they neared the carriages, Dominique caught sight of Miles and called out to him.

"Hey! Miles!" she yelled over the sea of students separating them. "Miles!"

Miles turned his head and spotted Dominique pushing her way through the crowd towards him.

"Hey Domi," he greeted her when she reached him. "What's up?"

"Where've you been?" Dominique wondered, not having seen Miles at all on the train.

"I was sitting with the guys," Miles replied, gesturing to the four other first year Gryffindor boys he was standing with.

"Oh," Dominique muttered, wondering why this news upset her. "Well do you maybe want to ride up to the school with us?" she asked, gesturing to Brooke, who had only just arrived, having had a difficult time pushing her way through the crowd.

"Well I was actually going to head up with these guys, but I'll see you in the Great Hall later," Miles replied.

"Oh right," Dominique muttered. "Sure."

"What's the matter?" Brooke asked as Miles and the other boys climbed into the next carriage and shut the door.

"I don't know," Dominique shrugged. "Nothing I guess."

It didn't make sense for Dominique to be upset about Miles spending time with the guys. She had hung out with Brooke all day. Miles was allowed to have other friends just like she was. But nevertheless, Dominique felt sad.

DdDdDdDdDdD

As the term began, Dominique found that Miles was spending more and more time just with the guys. She could sense a split happening between the first year girls and boys of Gryffindor house and she didn't like it one bit. Sure, Brooke was one of her closest friends, and the other girls were fun to spend time with too, but Dominique missed her best friend.

"Hey," Dominique greeted Miles one morning, sitting down next to him at breakfast in the Great Hall. "How're you?"

"Good," Miles replied. "Hey I haven't seen you in a while, where've you been?"

"I've been around," Dominique replied defensively. "You've been the one that's been hard to find. Always hanging with Tom and the guys."

"What're you talking about?" Miles asked, seemingly confused. "Every time I see you, you're hanging with Brooke or playing exploding snap with the girls."

"Yeah, Victoire got me a deck for Christmas," Dominique replied. "I'd invite you to join, but I can never find you when we want to play."

"I guess we've just been missing each other a lot recently," Miles observed.

"Yeah," Dominique sighed. "I miss hanging out with you, you know. Maybe we could do something today?"

"Yeah," Miles agreed. "I've got plans after class with Tom, but maybe we could do something after dinner?"

"Sounds like a plan," Dominique smiled.

Tom appeared then and insisted that Miles had to come with him to see something hilarious Timothy was doing out in the Entrance Hall. Miles asked if Dominique wanted to come, but Dominique declined politely, instead choosing to join Brooke and the other girls further down the table. Now that she'd been able to talk to Miles and made plans, she didn't mind so much that he was with the guys.

"So did you and Miles talk?" Brooke asked when Dominique sat down next to her.

"Yeah," Dominique said. "Yeah, everything's good."

DdDdDdDdDdD

The rest of the day dragged on as Dominique waited anxiously for dinnertime to come so that she could spend some time with her best friend. When dinner finally did come, Dominique ate quickly, wondering when Miles and the rest of the guys were coming down to eat.

"I'm sure they'll be here soon," Brooke assured Dominique.

"No, he's ditched me, I'm sure of it," Dominique disagreed.

"You're being ridiculous," Brooke said.

"No I'm not. Miles doesn't need me anymore now that he has his other friends. I'm yesterday's news," Dominique insisted.

Brooke rolled her eyes. "Look, there he is now," she pointed as the five Gryffindor boys entered the Great Hall, laughing and pounding each other on the back.

Dominique sat up straighter and watched as Miles bid his buddies goodbye and made his way over to her.

"You're finished eating already?" he asked, looking at Dominique's empty plate. "Dinner only started like, fifteen minutes ago."

"I was hungry," Dominique shrugged. "What've you been up to?"

"We were down at the Quidditch pitch," Miles replied. "Tom's uncle taught him how to fly one-handed over the Christmas holidays and we were all trying it."

"Why would you want to fly one-handed?" Dominique asked.

"How else is a beater supposed to hold a bat while flying?" Miles countered.

"You're telling me you want to be a beater?" Dominique asked.

Miles shrugged. "I don't know, maybe. I've thought about maybe trying out for the team in a few years and I think I'd make a pretty good beater."

"Well I think Quidditch is dumb," Dominique declared.

"You've got to be kidding me," Brooke cried, jumping into the conversation. "Quidditch is a fantastic sport."

"Yeah, that's what my family keeps telling me too," Dominique crossed her arms grumpily.

"You just think you don't like it because of your weird problem with flying," Miles said. "I'm sure if you went to a game, you'd love it."

"We'll all have to go sometime," Brooke declared.

" _Sure_ ," Dominique said uncertainly. Hopefully she could find some excuse to get out of that one when the time came. "So what do you want to do tonight Miles?" she asked as Brooke got sucked into a conversation with Brittany and Holly.

"Anything really," Miles shrugged. "Hey, have you ever played gobstones?"

"I haven't actually," Dominique confessed.

"My parents bought me the game for Christmas, we should totally check it out," Miles said excitedly. "It's a two-person game, and I haven't had anyone to try it out with yet."

"Awesome," Dominique agreed.

DdDdDdDdDdD

"Alright, so how does this work?" Dominique asked as Miles opened the box and laid the pieces out in front of them on the floor. They'd claimed an empty space in the back corner of the common room so they wouldn't be in anyone's way.

"Well this is clearly the board," Miles said, unfolding it and laying it out along the wall. And then I guess we each get five gobstones – there's green or there's purple, which do you want to be?"

"I'll be purple," Dominique decided.

"Great, so I'm green then," Miles said, separating out the five green gobstones. "And then according to the instructions, we take turns rolling them, and we get more points the closer to the center they get. See the rings? The manual says the outer ring is one point, the middle ring is two points, and the center is five points."

"Do we count the points as we go, or only at the end?" Dominique wondered.

"Only at the end," Miles replied.

"So we can knock each other's gobstones out of the way if we wanted?" Dominique surmised.

"That's right," Miles agreed. "That's what makes it so much harder."

"Alright, who goes first?" Dominique asked.

"Do you want to?" Miles offered.

Dominique thought for a second. If she went first, Miles would have the last shot. And the last shot was the only one that couldn't be knocked out of the way.

"You can go first," Dominique decided, pretending to be generous. "It's your game after all."

"Well alright then," Miles agreed, grabbing a gobstone and moving into position. "Here I go."

He threw the stone with too much force and completely missed the target.

"Nice shot," Dominique mocked.

"Let's see you do better," Miles challenged.

"Watch and learn," Dominique said cockily, switching places with Miles and narrowing her eyes in concentration. She aimed, took a deep breath, and threw the stone. It rolled right past the target and hit the wall behind the board.

"What was I supposed to learn from that?" Miles questioned. "Besides how to lose the game."

Dominique rolled her eyes. "It was only my first try," she muttered. "Just you wait."

The two continued to play the game for a couple hours, finally getting the hang of throwing the stones and succeeding in actually getting some points. Though neither would be competing in a gobstones tournament anytime soon, they were quite enjoying themselves and found the game to be quite entertaining.

"I'm hungry," Dominique declared suddenly.

"Seriously?" Miles asked. "Didn't you eat dinner?"

"Well I didn't eat much," Dominique admitted. "I was excited to hang out."

"Well dinner's over by now," Miles replied. "So unless you want to go all the way down to the kitchens again…" He trailed off when Dominique's face lighted up at the mention of the kitchens. "Oh no," he muttered.

"Please?" Dominique asked. "I'm starving. I mean, unless you have something besides sugar quills and licorice wands hidden in your trunk."

"I've got some fizzing whizbees," Miles offered.

"I need something more substantial than candy," Dominique insisted. "Come on, it'll be an adventure."

"It's almost curfew and the kitchen is all the way in the basement," Miles complained.

"I know a shortcut we can take on the way back," Dominique informed him. "Come on, don't make me go alone."

Miles sighed. "Fine, but we'd better hurry. It's already a quartet to nine."

"Yay!" Dominique exclaimed gleefully, jumping up and running over to the portrait hole.

The two hurried down the stairs as fast as possible, bypassing the Great Hall on the first floor and running down the final flight of stairs to the basement level where the entrance to the kitchens was. Dominique opened the door to the kitchens and they were immediately greeted by a hoard of house elves eager to serve them.

Dominique requested a sandwich and was given a small basket full of every kind of sandwich imaginable. Grateful, Dominique thanked the elves, taking the basket and grabbing a ham and cheese sandwich to eat right there as they exited.

"We have five minutes left till curfew," Miles said. "Where's this shortcut?"

"It's down in the dungeons," Dominique replied.

"What?" Miles cried. "You want to go even further from the common room? Are you insane?"

"Trust me," Dominique insisted, leading Miles back up to the Entrance Hall and then towards the stairs that led to the dungeons.

"Where are we going?" Miles asked as they ran through the dimly lit corridor.

"We're almost there," Dominique promised. "You'll see."

They continued to run until Dominique came to a stop, turning around and frowning.

"What's wrong?" Miles asked. "Where's the shortcut?"

"It should be here," Dominique replied. "This is where she said it would be."

"Where who said it would be?" Miles asked.

"Quinn," Dominique replied.

"Quinn Adams?" Miles questioned disbelievingly. "From Slytherin? What were you doing talking to her?"

"I wasn't, I just overheard her telling Karen Bonell about a shortcut down here that led to the fifth floor. She said it was behind one of the tapestries, but there aren't any tapestries down here," Dominique said.

"Well obviously she was just messing with Karen," Miles pointed out. "You know Quinn's not friends with anyone outside of Slytherin."

"I'm sorry," Dominique apologized. "Now we've missed curfew and we're stuck down here in the dungeons and it's all my fault."

"It's not all your fault," Miles said. "I agreed to come out with you, so it's partly my fault too."

"Yeah, but I'm the one that was hungry in the first place," Dominique said in frustration. "I don't even want these dumb sandwiches anymore." She threw the basket on the floor angrily.

"Well don't get all worked up yet," Miles insisted. "We could still make it back without getting caught. Come on, I saw a staircase over there."

This time, Miles led the way, locating the nearest staircase and ascending it.

"Where does this even lead?" Dominique asked when it seemed the stairs were never-ending.

"I don't know," Miles confessed. "I've never used this staircase before. I assumed it would take us back to the first floor and that we could find our way from there, but we must be at the third floor by now."

Finally, the staircase opened up into a corridor and Dominique and Miles hurried out to figure out how to get back to Gryffindor Tower.

"Where are we?" Dominique wondered. "What floor is this?"

"I don't know," Miles said. "I don't recognize anything."

"I guess we should just pick a direction and start walking," Dominique suggested. "Hopefully we'll find something familiar."

The two walked on, but nothing they passed gave them a clue to where they were. As they continued down the corridor, they started to wonder if they would ever find Gryffindor Tower again.

"And what do we have here?" an unfamiliar voice asked from behind them.

Dominique screamed and grabbed Miles' hand as the two spun around in fear only to find themselves face to face with Mr. Clarke, the night patrolman.

"You scared us," Dominique said, relieved it wasn't a serial killer or something.

"What're you doing out of bed after hours?" Mr. Clarke demanded.

"We got lost," Miles explained. "We were trying to find the common room, but we have no idea where we are."

"A likely story," Mr. Clarke said, unconvinced. "Names?"

"Miles Bailey," Miles said.

"Dominique Weasley," Dominique added.

"Weasley eh?" Mr. Clarke asked. "I believe I know your sister. She also has a penchant for wandering the castle after hours."

"You mean that one time?" Dominique asked.

"One time that she got caught," Mr. Clarke corrected. "Who knows how many times she's been out without being caught."

"Probably never," Dominique replied. "She's definitely not the troublemaker of the family."

"No, I suppose that would be you, wouldn't it?" Mr. Clarke asked.

"No, our younger brother Louis," Dominique told him. "He's always getting up to mischief."

"Well be that as it may, the facts remain that tonight, you were caught wandering the corridors after hours," Mr. Clarke reminded her.

"It's like Miles said," Dominique insisted. "We were just lost. We wanted to go back to Gryffindor Tower, we just couldn't find it."

Mr. Clarke sighed. "I should report you or take house points or something," he said hesitantly. "But for tonight, I suppose a warning will do."

"Thank you Sir," Miles said gratefully. "We promise; this will never happen again."

"Could you tell us one thing though?" Dominique asked. Mr. Clarke nodded. "How do we get back to the seventh floor?"

"You must be very lost indeed," Mr. Clarke observed.

"Why do you say that?" Miles asked.

"This is the seventh floor," Mr. Clarke revealed.

"It is?" Dominique asked, shocked. It hadn't felt like that many stairs when they'd been climbing them. "How did that happen?"

"Come on, I'll show you the way back," Mr. Clarke declared, leading the way in the opposite direction that the first years had been walking.

I didn't take long before Dominique realized where they were.

"Well that's why we were so lost!" she exclaimed. "We were on the Ravenclaw side of the seventh floor. We never come down here!"

"Well we have no reason to," Miles pointed out. "It's not our fault we didn't recognize it."

"How did you children find yourselves there in the first place?" Mr. Clarke asked when they arrived at the entrance to Gryffindor Tower.

"We found a staircase that led us there," Miles answered.

"And what were you doing so late at night down in the dungeons?" Mr. Clarke asked suspiciously.

"Potions assignment," Dominique jumped in before Miles could rat her out about the kitchens. "We were in the after-hours lab and lost track of time."

"Well, mind you keep better track of it in the future," Mr. Clarke said, bidding them goodnight as they gave the password and climbed through the portrait hole.

"Well that certainly was an adventure," Miles said once they were safely back inside.

"I'm so sorry," Dominique apologized again. "I didn't mean for all that to happen."

"Don't worry about it," Miles insisted. "Nothing happened, we didn't even get docked points."

"Yeah, well I'm still sorry," Dominique muttered.

"Come on," Miles said. "Another round of gobstones before bed?"

"Sure," Dominique agreed, a smile appearing on her face. "You'd better watch out, because I'm definitely going to win this time."


	6. February

Chapter 6: February 2014

 _Attention all Gryffindor students,_

 _The school-wide snowball fight will commence tonight at seven o'clock on the grounds outside the Entrance Hall. The building of snow fortresses for the battle will commence half an hour prior to the fight. All students who wish to participate are welcome. No sign-up necessary._

"This sounds like fun!" Dominique pointed to the notice on the noticeboard. "We should do it!"

"I don't know," Miles hesitated. "We have a lot of homework to do. I mean, there's that Herbology essay, and the Potions assignment. I don't know if we have the time to spare."

"Are you kidding me?" Dominique cried.

Miles broke into a smile. "Of course I'm kidding," he laughed. "We should definitely do it."

"Tom, Brittany, Joy, you guys in too?" Dominique asked the other first years nearby.

"Absolutely," Joy replied eagerly.

"No question," Tom agreed.

"Awesome," Dominique said. "And I'm sure the others will be in too. I know Brooke and Holly will be all for it."

"Tim, Zeke, and Grant wouldn't miss it either," Tom confirmed.

"So I guess we'll all just head out after dinner?" Dominique asked.

"Definitely," Brittany said.

DdDdDdDdDdD

As expected, the other first year Gryffindors were just as excited about the upcoming snowball fight and also agreed to participate. As soon as they'd finished eating dinner, they hurried out to the grounds to see what was going on.

"Gryffindors over here!" one of the older Gryffindor prefects directed them.

They reported to the designated Gryffindor area and someone assigned them the task of stockpiling snowballs while the older students worked on building a wall big enough to shield them all. Soon, the wall was six feet tall and forty feet long and all the Gryffindors were huddled behind it, waiting for the signal to begin.

The Hufflepuffs had built their wall directly across from the Gryffindors while the Ravenclaws were on their right and the Slytherins on their left. Together, the four houses formed a perfect square.

The Hogwarts Head Boy walked out into the middle of the battlefield and turned around slowly, inspecting each fortress in turn. He raised his hand and cried, "let the snowball fight… begin!"

Suddenly, snowballs were flying in every direction imaginable. All the older Gryffindors went straight for the pile of snowballs the first years had made and started darting out and shooting them at other students. Before they all disappeared, Dominique grabbed one and started to make her way towards the edge of the wall, where she might have a chance at hitting someone with it, when some sixth year stepped in front of her.

"First years are making snowballs," he told her. "Not throwing them."

"But that's not fair!" Dominique cried in outrage. "Why should we be stuck making snowballs while everyone else is having fun?"

"Who else is going to make the snowballs?" the boy countered.

"I don't know," Dominique said sarcastically. "Maybe the people throwing them?"

"We don't have time for that," the boy said. "Now go on back and make more snowballs, we're running low." He grabbed her snowball from her hand and darted out behind the wall with it.

In a huff, Dominique returned to her fellow first years, enraged and offended.

"Who does he think he is, telling us we have to just sit here and make snowballs?" Dominique cried. "It's completely unfair!"

"We should just ditch this and have our own snowball fight!" Timothy suggested.

"I'm with Tim," Tom agreed. "Come on, we can play girls against boys."

Everyone seemed much happier with this new plan, so the first years ran far from the school snowball fight and split up, each team hurrying to build their fortress quickest. Just as Dominique and Holly were putting the finishing touches on their wall, a snowball came flying through the air, hitting Dominique squarely in the face.

"Game on!" Zeke cried, ducking behind the boys' fortress before the girls could retaliate.

"Oh, it is on!" Brooke cried, grabbing some snow and balling it up before sending it sailing through the air, over the boys' fortress and right onto one of the boys.

"Hey!" Grant protested, his head popping up from behind the boys' wall.

Suddenly, snowballs were flying everywhere. Screams of joy and peals of laughter filled the air as the ten first year Gryffindors pummelled each other with balls of packed snow. Just as Dominique was about to throw a snowball at Tom, she was hit with a fierce blow right to the back. She spun around to find Miles sprinting away, and she took off after him, chasing him down with her snowball. She almost reached him when he dove behind his fortress and she threw the snowball at the wall in frustration.

All too soon, the game had to come to an end. Curfew was on it's way, and Dominique was not about to be found outside after curfew for a second time in as many months. Sadly, the first years called a truce and together began to troop back into the castle.

"I can't believe we lost," Dominique overheard some seventh years talking ahead of them.

"It's those darn first years," the other said. "Ours just went and ditched us while all the other houses had theirs making snowballs for them. How were we supposed to win with nobody to make our snowballs?"

Dominique rolled her eyes. "Well it's not like we lost house points or anything," she muttered to Brooke. "What're they making such a big deal out of it for?"

DdDdDdDdDdD

The next day, when Dominique and her friends walked into Herbology, they were met with a round of applause from their Slytherin classmates.

"What's going on?" Brooke wondered, confused.

"We just wanted to congratulate you," Quinn Adams said snarkily. "If it hadn't been for you ditching the rest of your house, we might not have win the snowball fight. So thanks for the help."

"We didn't – " Dominique started to protest, but Professor Longbottom interrupted.

"Alright class, settle down," he directed.

The Gryffindors took their seats while Professor Longbottom began his lecture on devil's snare.

"I wish everyone would just drop this whole thing," Brooke whispered to Dominique. "I mean, okay, so we ditched the snowball fight. It's not like we were trying to sabotage the game. It wasn't like it was mandatory or anything. Some people didn't even show up, and you don't see anyone harassing them."

"I know," Dominique whispered back. "It's so unfair. All we wanted to do was have some fun, and now everyone's making us feel bad for not wanting to sit around and build other people's snowballs."

"It's not even like we switched sides," Brooke added. "We just decided not to participate. Everyone's making it seem like we allied ourselves with the other teams or something."

"Brooke? Dominique?" Professor Longbottom called out, pausing his lecture. "Please save your conversation for after class is over."

"Sorry," Dominique muttered, her face heating up in embarrassment at being called out.

"Yeah," Brooke agreed. "Sorry."

"Now as I was saying," Professor Longbottom continued. "Devil's snare enjoys dark and cold environments…"

DdDdDdDdDdD

"Ugh, where did all this work come from?" Miles complained later that day when classes were over and the first year Gryffindors were headed back to the common room. "I mean, we already had the Potions assignment and that Herbology essay, but now we have to do another essay for History of Magic, plus assignments in Transfiguration and Defence, _and_ Professor Longbottom assigned a ton of reading for next class.

"Where are we even going to start?" Grant wondered.

"We should probably start with Potions, since it's due the soonest," Brittany suggested.

" _Puffapod_ ," Holly added when they reached the Fat Lady, causing the portrait hole to swing open. The first years walked in, only to be met by a wall of sixth years.

"And where do you think you're going?" one girl demanded.

"What do you mean?" Dominique asked.

"I mean, what makes you think you're allowed in here anymore?" the girl asked.

"This is the Gryffindor common room," Tom stated. "We're in Gryffindor. It's our common room."

"Not anymore it's not," the sixth year said.

"This common room is for _loyal_ Gryffindors," another girl informed them. "After what you pulled last night, you no longer qualify."

"So where are we supposed to go?" Joy asked.

"We don't care," the first girl replied. "But you aren't welcome in here."

"You can't make us leave," Timothy said, stepping forward bravely.

"Watch us," the second girl said.

Suddenly, the first years found themselves being forcibly pushed back out the portrait hole and into the corridor. The portrait of the Fat Lady swung shut and Dominique gaped, shocked at what had just happened.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Zeke asked.

"I guess we can go study in the library for a while," Brooke suggested.

"But they can't – " Timothy started.

"Don't waste your energy Tim," Miles interrupted. "Let's just give them a chance to cool down. We don't want to start a fight."

"Fine," Timothy allowed, though he didn't seem happy about it.

Altogether, the first years trooped down to the second floor and found a quiet space in the corner of the library where they could study in peace. They started on Potions, and once that was done, decided to continue with Transfiguration.

Usually, the first years were very animated as they did their homework together, sharing answers and joking around, but today, they were quiet and kept to themselves. Dominique didn't like it one bit, and finally, got so fed up of the silent group that she decided to take a walk.

"Where are you going?" Miles asked when Dominique pushed her chair back.

"I'm just going to go see if I can find some more information about the switching spell in one of these library books," Dominique lied.

"Don't you have your textbook?" Miles asked. "It explains it all in there."

"I just thought reading another interpretation might help me understand it better," Dominique invented. "I'll be right back."

Not having a particular destination in mind, Dominique began to aimlessly wander the library aisles until she suddenly ran into her sister, studying at a table with her two friends, Kara and Brianna.

"Oh, hey Domi," Victoire greeted her.

"Hey," Dominique replied unenthusiastically.

"What's wrong?" Victoire asked, immediately sensing something was off about her sister.

"Oh, it's nothing," Dominique shrugged. "I don't want to talk about it."

Victoire hesitated and then turned to her friends. "I'll be right back," she said.

Victoire led Dominique to an empty aisle and cornered her against a bookshelf.

"Alright, tell me what's wrong," she demanded.

"I told you, I don't want to talk about it," Dominique insisted.

"I'm your big sister," Victoire frowned. "It's my job to keep an eye on you and make sure you're alright."

"Says who?" Dominique demanded.

" _Maman_ and _papa_ ," Victoire stated matter-of-factly.

"Well don't waste your time," Dominique huffed. "I can take care of myself."

Dominique started to walk away, but Victoire grabbed her arm, stopping her from leaving.

"Come on Dominique," Victoire said. "I can tell something's wrong and I hate seeing you so upset."

Dominique sighed. "It's just this whole snowball fight thing," she said.

"What about it?" Victoire asked.

"You haven't heard?" Dominique asked, surprised.

"What should I have heard?" Victoire wondered.

"Well apparently, everyone's blaming us first years for Gryffindor losing because we ditched the game to play our own," Dominique explained. "The school-wide game was no fun. They wouldn't let us play, they just wanted us building snowballs for the older students, so we left. Now everyone's mad at us, and they won't even let us into Gryffindor Tower."

"They won't let you into Gryffindor Tower?" Victoire exclaimed as best she could while still using her library voice. "That's ridiculous. They can't do that."

"Well they did," Dominique muttered. "And they're a lot stronger than I am, so there's not much I can do."

"Well I guess we'll see what they have to say when I'm with you," Victoire said determinedly.

"No offense," Dominique said hesitantly. "But I don't think bringing a third year is going to make much difference."

"What about three third years?" Victoire amended.

Dominique considered. "I don't know…"

"Come on," Victoire insisted. "Let's get your friends and go."

Reluctantly, Dominique allowed her sister to rally Kara and Brianna and drag all the first years back up to the seventh floor and into the common room.

"I thought we told you that you're not welcome here," one of the sixth year girls said as soon as the first years had climbed through the portrait hole.

"You can't kick them out of the common room," Victoire said, stepping forward, Kara and Brianna on either side. "They're Gryffindors, same as you and me."

"And who do you think you are?" the sixth year demanded, placing her hands on her hips.

"Who do I think I am?" Victoire cried. "Who do you think you are?"

"Excuse me?" the girl cried, affronted.

"What's going on over here?" Teddy asked, stepping onto the scene.

"It's fine Teddy," Victoire said. "I've got this handled."

"Are you sure about that?" Teddy questioned.

"Yes," Victoire said, clenching her teeth. Dominique frowned. Was something going on between Teddy and Victoire? "I can handle this, you can go back to whatever you were doing over there with your girlfriend or whatever you want to call her."

"Yeah, about that," Teddy said. "I wanted to talk to you about – "

"Excuse me?" Brooke interrupted. "Can we focus on the real problem here?"

"And what exactly is the problem?" Teddy asked, redirecting his attention to the situation at hand.

"They told us we aren't allowed in the common room anymore," Timothy spoke up. "Just because we didn't want to play in their dumb snowball fight."

"Is that true?" Teddy asked, turning to the sixth years.

"So what if it is?" the girl who seemed to be their leader demanded.

"Well as a prefect, I'm required to report any behavior like this to our Head of House, and I know Professor Longbottom wouldn't want to be disturbed if this was just a misunderstanding," Teddy said, masking his threat.

"Oh well yes, I'm sure there's no need to bother Professor Longbottom," the girl agreed, backing off. "These first years must have just misunderstood. We wouldn't kick them out of their own common room."

"Well I'm glad we got that sorted," Teddy said as the sixth years cleared out.

"Thanks Teddy!" Dominique said, giving him a hug.

"No problem," Teddy said with a shrug. He turned back to Victoire. "Listen, can we – "

"Well if everything's sorted, then I think we should head back to the library, right girls?" Victoire asked, turning back to Kara and Brianna. "We've got to finish that Charms assignment for tomorrow after all."

Victoire and her friends disappeared, leaving Teddy and the first years standing awkwardly by the portrait hole.

"What's up with Victoire?" Dominique wondered.

"I don't know," Teddy shrugged sadly. "Anyway, are you guys good?"

"Yeah, thanks again," Dominique agreed as her friends claimed a table on the far side of the common room away from the sixth years to continue their homework.

"Anytime," Teddy smiled.

DdDdDdDdDdD

"Hey Vic?" Dominique approached her sister a couple of days later. "Is everything alright?" she asked.

"Yeah," Victoire replied. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Well it's just that… the other day, you seemed a little strange with Teddy," Dominique observed.

"What makes you say that?" Victoire asked. "I'm fine, everything's fine."

"It's just that – "

"I'm fine Dominique," Victoire insisted. "Just leave it alone, alright?"

"Alright," Dominique backed off. "But if you ever want to talk…"

"Thanks," Victoire said with a slight smile. "I'll keep that in mind."

DdDdDdDdDdD

As the days passed, everyone slowly began to forget about the snowball fight and things started to go back to the way they used to be. The first year Gryffindors were grateful to find that the sneers and sour looks they would get in the common room began to cease, and the rounds of applause and congratulations from their Slytherin classmates came to an end as well. Soon, it was as if nothing had ever happened.


	7. March

Chapter 7: March 2014

Dominique awoke one cold morning in early March shivering. Cracking her eyes open, she noticed that the window between Joy and Brooke's beds was wide open. Pulling a sweater over her shoulders, she padded over to the window and pulled it shut, wondering why anyone would open it in the first place.

Still freezing, Dominique decided that a nice hot shower would do her some good. It was early still, so she would have time to just stand and let the hot water warm her up. Since all the other first year girls were still asleep, Dominique had the bathroom all to herself; a luxury she didn't often get. Taking her time, she turned the water on in the shower and opened her bathroom kit, retrieving all the supplies she would need before finally stepping under the nozzle and sighing happily as she began to warm up from the outside in.

Soon, the other girls began to wake up and make their way into the bathroom too, so Dominique decided it was time to wash her hair and get out of the shower stall to give the other girls the chance to take their morning showers too. There were only three shower stalls for the five girls after all, and they were all morning showerers.

"Dominique, is that you?" Brooke's voice called out as the shower in the stall next to Dominique's began to run and Brooke presumably entered it.

"Yeah," Dominique replied. "Good morning," she added.

"Morning," Brooke returned.

Dominique squirted some shampoo into her hand and started lathering it into her hair.

"Hey Brooke, do you have any idea why the window between yours and Joy's beds was wide open all night?" Dominique wondered curiously.

"It was open?" Brooke asked, surprised. "No wonder I was so cold when I woke up."

"You didn't know?" Dominique asked.

"Nope," Brooke responded. "Joy must've opened it. No idea why though."

"I didn't open it," Joy's voice sounded as the water in the third and final shower turned on. "Maybe it was Holly or Brittany?"

"Why would they open a window so far from their beds?" Dominique wondered.

"I don't know," Joy responded. "Why would anyone open a window overnight at all in the middle of winter?"

Suddenly, without warning, the flow of water from the shower stopped just as Dominique was about to rinse out her hair. Dominique paused, listening to see if it was only her shower, but she found that she couldn't hear water in any of the other shower stalls either.

"Guys?" she began hesitantly. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," Brooke said, confused. "The water just stopped."

"Is this some sort of prank or something?" Joy asked.

"Is what some sort of prank?" Brittany's voice asked as she joined the other girls in the bathroom.

"The water just stopped running," Brooke explained. "Try the sinks."

For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of turning faucets, and then Brittany spoke again. "Nothing," she said. "There's no water in any of the sinks."

"What's going on?" Dominique wondered in confusion.

"You don't think they're still mad about the snowball fight thing, do you?" Joy wondered.

"You think the sixth years would shut off our water because they're mad we lost a snowball fight?" Dominique asked, thinking it sounded a little far-fetched.

"I'll go see what's going on," Brittany said. "I'll be right back."

The bathroom door opened and shut and the three girls waited in the shower stalls to see what Brittany would find out.

"I just put shampoo in my hair," Dominique said.

"Me too," Joy added.

"I have soap all over my body," Brooke contributed.

The bathroom door creaked open and Dominique immediately demanded to know what was going on.

"Apparently there's no water in the entire tower," Brittany reported. "Not for the girls or for the boys. Everyone's freaking out and some of the prefects have gone to find Professor Longbottom to sort it all out."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Dominique asked.

"I don't know," Brittany shrugged. "Hang on, I'll go back down and see if they've got Professor Longbottom up here yet."

Brittany left once more and Dominique shivered. She grabbed her towel and wrapped it around herself to keep warm while they waited to find out what they were supposed to do, or whether the water would be returning anytime soon.

The door creaked open again.

"Brittany?" Brooke called out.

"No, it's Holly," Holly replied.

"Do you know what's going on?" Brooke asked.

"What do you mean?" Holly asked. "What about?"

"There's no water anywhere in Gryffindor Tower," Joy explained.

"What?" Holly cried. "How is that even possible?"

Just then, Brittany returned from her second recon mission.

"Okay, Professor Longbottom's down in the common room. He says there's no water anywhere in the castle and that it might take some time to get it running again. We're just supposed to make do until they can fix the problem."

"That's it?" Dominique cried. "This is a magic castle, can't they just cast a spell to get the water running again?"

"Not if it's a magical problem," Brittany pointed out.

"So where does that leave us?" Brooke wondered.

"I guess we'll just have to towel off the soap as best we can," Joy sighed.

"This is so not how I envisioned my morning going," Dominique complained as she attempted to get as much of the shampoo out of her hair with her towel as possible.

DdDdDdDdDdD

When the girls had done all that they could do to make themselves presentable, they descended to the common room. As soon as they reached the main level of Gryffindor Tower, they found themselves swept into a cacophony of mayhem with Professor Longbottom at the center. Students were yelling at him and hurling insults at him while he failed in his attempt to explain the situation calmly.

Dominique spotted the boys across the common room and motioned to the portrait hole, indicating that they should follow them out and down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"You three don't look so good," Zeke observed, meaning Dominique, Brooke, and Joy.

"We were all in the shower when the water shut off," Joy explained. "Weren't any of you guys?"

"We were pretty much done. It was only Miles that was still in there, right Miles?" Zeke said.

"Yeah, but I'd already washed all the soap off," Miles replied. "Not like you girls. Dominique, do you have shampoo in your hair?"

"I thought I'd got it all!" Dominique cried, upset.

"It's not much," Miles assured her. "You can hardly tell."

"My head itches," Joy complained. "I think some of the shampoo is drying onto my scalp."

"My body itches," Brooke grumbled, scratching at her shoulder. "I don't think I got all the soap off after all."

"I feel fine," Grant said.

Joy punched him in the shoulder. "Thanks a lot," she said sarcastically.

DdDdDdDdDdD

At breakfast, Headmistress McGonagall announced that the water shortage could last up to a few days.

"A few days?" Brooke cried when the information was revealed. "I'm going to itch like this for a few days?"

The Headmistress apologized for the inconvenience and advised that anyone looking for various hygiene spells speak to Professor Flitwick. Luckily for the first years, they had Charms first thing, and Professor Flitwick was more than willing to help everyone to get back to clean.

DdDdDdDdDdD

The following morning, Dominique awoke shivering once again. As she had the previous morning, she pulled a sweater on and got up to find that the same window was wide open once again. Irritated, freezing, and without hope of a hot shower to warm her up, Dominique decided to spend her time waiting for her roommates to wake up flipping through a textbook Professor Flitwick had given them containing a few simple hygiene spells.

She started with a spell for washing her face and found that it worked better if she modified the wand movement slightly so that instead of curving upwards at the end she simply came to a stop in the center. Next she tried a spell for brushing teeth and found that if she skipped the third syllable of the incantation, her mouth would be left feeling minty fresh in addition to having clean teeth.

Soon, her friends began to awaken. Dominique passed on her modifications to the spells to them and they all received fantastic results. When Brittany and Holly awoke, Dominique questioned them about the open window, since she had never gotten around to it the previous day, but they both claimed to have had nothing to do with it.

When the following morning, Dominique awoke once again to find the same window wide open, she decided that enough was enough. That night, when everyone went to sleep, she stayed awake, reading ahead in Charms and playing around with some more spells to see what kind of results she could get by changing wand motion and intonation.

Suddenly, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and she turned to identify the culprit. It was Brooke, climbing out of her bed and walking towards the window.

"Aha!" Dominique whispered, so as not to wake the other girls. "I caught you. What are you doing opening the window anyway?" she asked.

Brooke ignored her, opening the latch and swinging the window panes outward.

"Hey, earth to Brooke," Dominique said, frowning. Brooke was just standing there, staring out the window while Dominique got colder and colder. "Brooke, what are you doing?" she asked, getting up and padding over to her friend.

Still Brooke ignored her, staring up at the sky without making a sound.

"Brooke!" Dominique hissed, grabbing her friend by the shoulder and shaking her a little. "What's up with you?"

"What?" Brooke asked, shaking her head and turning around in confusion. "Dominique? What's going on?"

"You tell me," Dominique frowned. "All of a sudden you just climbed out of bed and opened the window, and when I asked what you were doing, you just ignored me. Have you been sleepwalking again?"

"Oh no," Brooke said, her face paling. "I didn't even – I've been taking my potion."

"I guess you need a stronger potion then," Dominique said. "Listen, is everything alright?"

Brooke shrugged. "I guess so," she muttered.

"Why do you think your unconscious self wants to stare out the window?" Dominique wondered.

"I think I was staring at the moon," Brooke said. "Mom loved the moon."

Dominique smiled sadly and wrapped her arm around her friend. "The moon is beautiful," she agreed.

"I miss her," Brooke said, tears welling in her eyes.

"I know you do," Dominique said sadly, rubbing her hand up and down her friend's shoulder. "Is there anything I can do?"

Brooke shrugged. "Not really I guess. Just don't tell the others about this."

"Of course not," Dominique said, shutting the window when a gust of cold air blew in. "Here, get back into bed."

Dominique helped Brooke back into her bed and then sat on the edge of it.

"Go to sleep," Dominique told her friend. "I'll watch over you."

"Thanks Dominique. You're a good friend," Brooke replied, closing her eyes and drifting off back to sleep.

DdDdDdDdDdD

The next day before breakfast, Dominique took Brooke to the hospital wing to see Madam Eldridge.

"What seems to be the problem girls?" the hospital matron asked.

"It's my sleepwalking," Brooke explained. "The potion you gave me stopped working."

"Let me take a look at that," Madam Eldridge said as Brooke handed her the bottle of potion. She inspected the bottle for a moment before finding the problem. "Here we are, right on the bottom – it's expired."

"Expired?" Brooke repeated.

"Yes, all you need is a fresh batch of sleepwalking potion," Madam Eldridge said. "I believe I have some in my office, let me just go fetch it."

"Well at least we know it wasn't your fault," Dominique said while they waited for Madam Eldridge to return. "It was just expired potion."

"Yeah, but I'm still doing it," Brooke muttered. "I should be able to sleep soundly without needing to take a potion."

"And you will someday," Dominique assured her. "But I guess that day just isn't today."

"I wish it could be," Brooke said.

DdDdDdDdDdD

Finally, after a week and a half, water returned the Hogwarts.

"Thank Merlin!" Dominique explained when she saw the notice on the noticeboard in the common room.

"I'm going to take a shower right now," Brooke declared. "I don't care how good those hygiene spells are, nothing beats the real thing."

"I should probably return that textbook to Professor Flitwick," Dominique commented, thinking of the book he'd given them full of hygiene spells.

"Well if you'd rather do that than shower, be my guest," Brooke said. "But I'm going to take full advantage of the water while it's here."

"There's only three shower stalls anyway," Dominique pointed out. "I'll just take the second round of showers."

While Brooke, Joy, and Holly hurried off to clean themselves up, Dominique grabbed Professor Flitwick's textbook and headed down to the second floor to deliver it back to him.

"Thank you Dominique," he said when she handed it over. "I appreciate getting this back. You never know when you might have to look up a spell here or there."

"Thanks for lending it to us," Dominique replied. "Some of those spells were really helpful."

Just as she was about to leave, Professor Flitwick dropped the book and a sheet of parchment fell out it.

"What's this?" he asked, bending down and picking it up.

Dominique looked closer and realized it was her notes on how to improve some of the spells.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she blushed, grabbing it back from him. "I didn't realize I'd left that in there."

"But what is it?" the Professor asked, peering closer. "Are these modifications to the spells?"

"Yeah, it's nothing," Dominique muttered.

"It certainly isn't nothing!" Professor Flitwick insisted. "Let me see that properly."

Reluctantly, Dominique handed the parchment back over and waited anxiously as her Professor read it over.

"I know it's just silly – who cares whether your mouth feels minty as long as your teeth are clean, right?" Dominique muttered.

"Do these actually work?" Professor Flitwick asked.

Dominique frowned. "Yeah," she replied. "Sure."

"Do you mind if I hold onto this?" Professor Flitwick asked.

"I guess not," Dominique shrugged, eager to get away and back to Gryffindor Tower.

DdDdDdDdDdD

"What took you so long?" Brooke asked when Dominique returned.

"Professor Flitwick got all weird about my notes for those modifications I made to some of the spells," Dominique replied. "He wouldn't let me leave."

"Well all three showers are free," Brooke said. "So take your pick."

After a week and a half of no running water, the shower felt glorious. Dominique stayed under the water much longer than she needed to, just enjoying the feeling of the water against her skin and the feeling of being truly clean.

DdDdDdDdDdD

"So do you want to play a round of gobstones later?" Miles asked as he and Dominique headed to the Great Hall for breakfast the following morning. "Maybe after last period?"

"Sounds like fun!" Dominique agreed enthusiastically.

"Miss Weasley!" Professor Flitwick called out suddenly from across the Entrance Hall. "Miss Weasley, may I speak with you a moment?"

Dominique paused in confusion. "Go ahead, I'll be right in," she said.

Miles continued on into the Great Hall while Dominique walked over to her Charms Professor.

"Yes?" she asked, wondering what this could be about.

"I've been testing some of the modifications you made to those hygiene spells," Professor Flitwick began.

"Oh I know," Dominique muttered. "They're not very good."

"Quite the contrary," Professor Flitwick disagreed. "They were phenomenal. I think you have a real gift."

"A gift?" Dominique asked.

"For Charms," Professor Flitwick clarified.

"Oh," Dominique said, unsure what to do with this information.

"I've looked over your classwork, and you're definitely at the top of your class. In fact, you're one of the strongest students I've seen in a long time," he added.

"Thank you," Dominique said.

"I know you still have a long way to go, but I think you should consider a career path in Charms," Professor Flitwick added.

"Oh," Dominique said, surprised. "Well thank you, I'll definitely consider it."

By the time Professor Flitwick let Dominique go, there was no time left to eat before making the long trek up to History of Magic. She didn't get a chance to talk to Miles all day, so when they finally met up to play gobstones after Transfiguration, Miles was very curious to know what Professor Flitwick had had to say.

"He told me I had a gift in Charms," Dominique said matter-of-factly as she rolled one of her gobstones.

"A gift?" Miles asked.

"Yeah. He suggested I consider a career in Charms. As if I'm even thinking about that sort of thing yet," Dominique said, switching places with Miles.

"Why would he say a thing like that?" Miles wondered.

"I made some modifications to a few hygiene spells and he found them and apparently he was pretty impressed," Dominique explained.

"What spells?" Miles wondered as he rolled his gobstone and knocked Dominique's out of the way.

"Just some of the hygiene spells," Dominique replied. "Only minor things, nothing crazy, but he was all excited about it."

"I mean, you are only in first year," Miles pointed out. "So that's pretty cool. And you were the first one of us to master the levitation spell. Maybe you really do have a gift."

"Don't you start with this too," Dominique warned, rolling another gobstone.

"Sorry," Miles apologized immediately.

"It's just a lot of pressure all of a sudden," Dominique explained. "Now if I do badly on an assignment, or if I have trouble with a spell, I'm going to feel bad about it, like I let Professor Flitwick down or something."

"Don't," Miles said, taking a turn rolling a gobstone. "Nobody expects you to be perfect just because you figured out a few improvements to some simple hygiene spells."

"Are you sure about that?" Dominique asked, rolling her final gobstone. "I win," she smirked when she knocked Miles' gobstone completely out of the target.

"Definitely," Miles said. "Even professionals mess up sometimes, so nobody's expecting perfection from you."

"I guess so," Dominique shrugged. "Why did he have to say anything at all, anyway?"

"Come on, let's just forget about all this," Miles suggested. "Another game?"

"Anytime," Dominique smiled. "You're going down."


	8. April

Chapter 8: April 2014

"Oh it's so good to have my girls home again!" Bill Weasley exclaimed when he returned home from work. It was the Easter holidays, and Dominique and Victoire had elected to return home this year instead of staying at Hogwarts like most of the school. Dominique figured since Brooke and Miles were both going home, and Victoire wanted to come home, she might as well come home too.

"Hi _papa_ ," Dominique cried, running to her father and receiving a big hug. Victoire got one too, and then Bill insisted on taking a look at his daughters properly.

"Look how big you've both grown," he marvelled. "Why Victoire, you're practically all grown up."

"What about me?" Louis asked, looking for attention.

"Well you must've grown at least a foot since I've been at work," Bill said good-naturedly. "What did you have to eat for lunch today?"

"Tomato soup," Louis replied. " _Maman_ made it."

"Well there must have been something in that soup, because you look about as old as me now," Bill replied.

" _Papa_ ," Dominique spoke up. "Can we all go get ice cream tomorrow in Diagon Alley?"

"Not tomorrow _chèrie_ ," her mother said. "Your father has to work tomorrow and I have to go to a healer's appointment with _grand-maman Delacour_ , so you three will have to spend the afternoon at Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey's."

"But don't worry," her father added. "We'll make sure to get ice cream sometime before you have to go back to Hogwarts."

Dominique and Victoire exchanged a look. They hated staying with Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey. It wasn't their Aunt and Uncle they disliked spending time with, although as far as Aunt and Uncles went, Percy and Audrey were the most boring ones they had. The problem was Molly; bossy, know-it-all, outspoken Molly. Louis could usually avoid Molly by playing with their other cousin Lucy, but Dominique and Victoire had a harder time avoiding her.

"Can't I just watch the kids?" Victoire inquired hopefully.

Their parents exchanged a look.

"It didn't go so well the last time," their father pointed out.

"I know, but I'd be really responsible this time," Victoire promised.

"Maybe we'll try again in the summer," their mother allowed. "But Percy and Audrey are already really excited to have you over tomorrow and it's too late to cancel. Besides, you haven't seen your cousins since Christmas and I'm sure Molly would love to hear all about Hogwarts since she'll be starting next year."

"Great," Dominique mumbled to herself. Should have stayed at Hogwarts, she thought.

DdDdDdDdDdD

"Victoire! Dominique!" Aunt Audrey exclaimed the following afternoon when they arrived.

"And me!" Louis cried, not wanting to be left out.

"Yes, and Louis too of course," Aunt Audrey amended, despite having seen him only a few days prior. "Well it's wonderful to have you all here. Come in, I just made a batch of cookies and the girls are in the kitchen."

"See you later _mes chèries_ ," their mother called before disapparating and leaving the Delacour-Weasleys with the Brown-Weasleys.

Reluctantly, Dominique and her siblings entered the house and followed their Aunt into the kitchen where Lucy and Molly were indeed waiting for them.

"Victoire! Dominique!" Lucy cried in excitement, not having seen them in a while. The eight-year-old jumped up and ran over to give her older cousins a hug.

"What about me?" Louis demanded, hating being the forgotten one.

"But I saw you last week," Lucy told him with a frown.

"So what?" Louis demanded. "Don't you like me anymore?"

"Sure I do," Lucy said. "Hey, wanna see my new toy wand? It can change the color of things."

"Cool!" Louis cried following Lucy out of the kitchen at a run.

"Well I'll leave you three girls to it," Audrey said. "I have some cleaning to do, so just let me know if you need anything."

Once Aunt Audrey had left the room too, Victoire and Dominique turned to Molly, wondering what their cousin would insist on doing this afternoon.

"So did you want to look at the new book daddy bought me?" Molly asked. "It's all about the goblin rebellions, it's really interesting."

"But that's fourth year material!" Victoire said in surprise.

"Doesn't hurt to be prepared," Molly shrugged. "Hey, aren't your exams coming up pretty soon?"

"Yeah, in June," Dominique confirmed.

"What sort of things do you need to know for first year exams?" Molly wondered.

"Just the basics," Dominique shrugged.

"Oh come on," Molly insisted. "Start with Potions. What sorts of potions do you need to know how to brew for first year?"

Dominique could tell that Molly wasn't going to give in and that this was simply how she was going to have to spend her afternoon – going over the first year curriculum.

"Well there's the forgetfulness potion of course…" Dominique sighed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Victoire sidling out of the room and she was immediately jealous that her older sister might get to spend the afternoon in peace.

"Ooh, I know!" Molly exclaimed before Dominique could even list the next potion. "I'll quiz you, to see how ready you are for your exams!"

"Oh, I don't think that's really necessary – " Dominique started.

"Oh, it'll be fun," Molly insisted. "Trust me. Okay, first question… what direction should you stir a forgetfulness potion?"

Dominique sighed. "Um… clockwise?" Dominique replied, making it sound more like a question than an answer. They hadn't covered the forgetfulness potion since first term and she hadn't started revising yet since it was _only_ April."

"Correct," Molly said. "Next question… what is the final ingredient you must add to a forgetfulness potion?"

"Lethe river water?" Dominique ventured, not having much of a clue, but remembering that the lethe river water had to be added in two separate doses; one at the beginning and one at the end.

"Nope," Molly said with a smile that only served to anger Dominique. "The last ingredient is mistletoe berries. Lethe river water is only the second-to-last ingredient."

"Well I was pretty close," Dominique said, proud to have remembered so much about a potion she hadn't thought about since November.

"Close isn't good enough. Close doesn't get you marks on exams," Molly pointed out. "Alright, what's another potion you've studied this year?"

She continued on asking Dominique questions like this for the good part of an hour. When they had gone through all of the potions Dominique had studied that year, they moved onto History of Magic, and then Transfiguration, and then Charms. When Aunt Audrey finally returned to the kitchen, they had started with Herbology and Dominique was ready to lose her mind.

"No, no, you've got it all confused," Molly was correcting Dominique. "Bouncing bulbs are purple and spiky bushes are yellow. Just because you can destroy them both with _incendio_ doesn't mean they're the same plant."

"Well it sounds like you girls are having an interesting afternoon in here," Aunt Audrey commented.

"Yeah," Molly agreed. "I'm helping Dominique get ready for her exams. She hasn't started revising at all yet, so this will help get her started."

"Why don't you give Dominique a break, Molly?" Aunt Audrey suggested. "Lucy and Louis are up in Lucy's room and I know they'd love to show you all the redecorating they've been doing."

"But Dominique needs my help," Molly insisted.

"I think she'll be okay for a few minutes," Aunt Audrey assured her.

With a sigh, Molly pushed her chair back and disappeared to find her younger sister and cousin.

"Thanks," Dominique said gratefully.

"Molly can be a lot sometimes," Audrey said. "She has a very strong personality."

"That she does," Dominique agreed.

"I think Victoire is reading outside under the tree if you want to go find her," her Aunt informed her.

"Thanks, I think I will," Dominique said, standing up and heading for the back door. Before Molly comes back for round two, she thought to herself.

On her way out, she grabbed a couple of cookies from the plate Aunt Audrey had left out; one for herself and one for Victoire.

"Hey," she said, approaching her older sister.

"Hey Domi," Victoire said, putting her book down. "How's it going?"

"Ugh," Dominique huffed, handing her sister the cookie and flopping down in the grass next to her. "It's humiliating! I'm the one in school actually learning all this stuff, and somehow Molly's the one tutoring me!"

"Yeah, well she's too smart for her own good," Victoire assured her. "It's not healthy how much time she spends studying when she should be enjoying her childhood."

"She doesn't even need to go to Hogwarts next year. She could just show up in June and write the exams and she'd be fine," Dominique said.

"I'm sure that's not true," Victoire said. "Just because theory comes easily to her doesn't mean the practical will."

"Oh I bet she'll be great at that too," Dominique muttered.

"Well it doesn't matter anyway, because no matter how good she is, it doesn't affect how good you are," Victoire pointed out.

"It just makes me feel so dumb when she's always correcting me and stuff," Dominique confessed.

"Well you shouldn't feel dumb," Victoire said. "Don't compare yourself to Molly. If anything, compare yourself to your classmates; you know, the ones who will actually be writing your exams with you? Better yet, compare yourself to yourself – as long as you do your best, everything will be fine."

Dominique shrugged. "Whatever," she muttered. "I'm not going back in there though."

Victoire laughed. "Maybe if we're quiet, Molly won't realize we're out here and won't be able to find us at all."

DdDdDdDdDdD

Their mother returned to pick them up about an hour later. As it turned out, Molly had found Dominique and Victoire out under the tree, but Victoire had sacrificed herself and submitted herself to Molly's tutelage, leaving Dominique free to sit under the tree and pull grass up out of the ground. Though they loved their Aunt and cousins, both girls were happy to leave.

"I have a surprise for you," their mother said when they had arrived back home.

"What is it?" Louis asked excitedly. "Did you bring us presents?"

"Even better," their mother said. "I brought…"

" _Moi_!" a familiar voice called out, coming around the corner from the next room.

" _Grand-maman Delacour_!" Dominique cried running to give her grandmother a hug.

"Careful," her mother warned. " _Grand-maman_ isn't as strong as she used to be."

Victoire helped their grandmother into a chair and the three children sat around her while their mother went to prepare dinner.

" _Alors_?" she asked in French. " _Comment allez-vous les enfants_?" Though she had been able to speak some English back when Fleur had been school-aged, in her old age, _grand-maman_ _Delacour_ had forgotten most of it and had reverted back to French.

" _Bien_ ," Victoire replied.

" _Et vos examens_?" their grandmother asked. " _Vous êtes preparez, les filles_?"

" _Oui_ ," Dominique confirmed. " _Je pourrais même les écrire aujourd'hui si vous voulez_."

" _Oh c'est magnifique_!" their grandmother exclaimed. " _Vous êtes deux filles très intelligent, je le sais._ _Vous allez changez le monde_."

Just then, the front door opened and their father walked in.

" _Papa_! Look who's here!" Louis cried, running over and dragging his father into the living room. "It's _grand-maman Delacour!_ "

"So it is!" their father said. "What a nice surprise. _Bonjour Apolline, comment ça va_?" he asked their grandmother with his terrible accent.

" _Très bien_ ," their grandmother replied. " _Je vois que tu n'a encore pas coupez tes cheveux. Ils sont très longues._ "

" _C'est vraix_ ," their father laughed.

" _Peut-être ils vont être plus courtes la prochaine fois qu'on ce voit_ ," _grand-maman Delacour_ said.

" _Peut-être_ ," Bill allowed.

"But _papa_ , I like your hair," Louis said.

Their father chuckled. "Don't worry Louis, I won't be cutting it anytime soon. Just don't tell your grandmother that."

DdDdDdDdDdD

"Hey Vic?" Dominique asked a few days later.

"Hmm?" Victoire asked, looking up from her notes – she was starting to study for her exams.

"Did you and Teddy ever make up?" Dominique wondered.

"What do you mean?" Victoire asked. "We were never in a fight."

"Oh," Dominique frowned. "Well back in January, it just seemed like – "

"That was nothing," Victoire shut her sister down. "Just a misunderstanding."

"Oh," Dominique shrugged. "Okay…"

"Don't worry Dominique, it's all sorted out now," Victoire assured her.

"Okay," Dominique said. "I just wanted to check."

"Don't worry about me," Victoire said. "And if you are going to worry about me, worry about how I'm supposed to pass Defence…"

DdDdDdDdDdD

"Domi?" Louis appeared in Dominique's doorway one afternoon while she was working on an assignment for her astronomy class.

"What is it?" Dominique asked, looking up from her work.

"Whatcha doing?" Louis asked, shuffling from one foot to another.

"Come in and see," Dominique offered, gesturing for her brother to come closer.

A smile spread across Louis' face as he crossed the room and came up beside Dominique at her desk to see what she was doing.

"What is it?" Louis wondered, looking at the long parchment filled with what seemed to him like tons of strange markings.

"It's a star chart," Dominique explained. "See, these are the stars and planets in the sky, and what I have to do is identify their names from this picture."

"How do you do that?" Louis wondered.

"See all these?" Dominique asked, gesturing to a stack of parchment filled with her writing. "These are my notes from class. I can use them to help me figure out where the stars and planets are supposed to be and then I just have to find them on this map."

"Sounds like fun," Louis said. "Can I help?"

"I don't think so," Dominique said. "It's pretty complicated."

"I'm very smart," Louis offered.

Dominique laughed. "I know you are," she said. "But I think this is just a little too advanced for you yet."

Louis pushed out his bottom lip in a pout.

"Here," Dominique suggested, pulling out her transfiguration notes. "I have something you can help me with."

"What is it?" Louis asked eagerly.

"Well all my notes are completely out of order. See how I've written the dates at the top of each page? How would you like to put them in order from oldest to most recent?" Dominique asked.

"Okay!" Louis cried, grabbing the papers and laying down on the floor on his stomach. As he worked, he began humming to himself and Dominique smiled as she returned to her Astronomy homework. She'd really missed her brother these past few months that she'd spent at Hogwarts. It was nice to have him around again.

DdDdDdDdDdD

"Hey!" Miles greeted Dominique when she boarded the train at King's Cross station. "How was your holiday?"

"Really good," Dominique replied, thinking of the quality time she'd gotten to spend with her family. "How was yours?"

"Alright," Miles said. "My sister wouldn't leave me alone for even a second."

"Flora, right?" Dominique asked.

"Yeah. You'll meet her next year when she starts Hogwarts," Miles said.

"My cousin Molly starts Hogwarts next year too!" Dominique realized. "Maybe they'll be friends."

"That would be cool," Miles agreed.

The train whistle blew and the train began to pull out of the station. Dominique and Miles stepped up to the window to wave goodbye to their families as they left for a final two and a half months.

"So, want to play a game of gobstones?" Miles asked.

"I don't know if we'll be able to play too well on a moving train," Dominique pointed out. "Won't the stones roll all over the place?"

"Good point," Miles said with a frown. "So then what do you want to do?"

Dominique shrugged. "Have you finished all your holiday homework?" she asked.

Miles grimaced. "No," he confessed.

"Me neither," Dominique said. "We should probably – "

"But homework is so boring!" Miles protested.

"Well we have to do it sometime," Dominique pointed out.

"Fine," Miles sighed, reaching for his trunk to collect his things.

DdDdDdDdDdD

By the time they reached the castle, Miles and Dominique had both completely finished their homework, leaving them with an entire evening free to play gobstones while the rest of the first year Gryffindors were stuck doing their homework at one of the tables in the common room.

"This is so unfair," Brooke complained, glaring over at Miles and Dominique having fun while she attempted to complete her star chart. "You could just let me copy yours and then I could play too."

"How would that be fair?" Dominique asked. "Then I would have done all the work and you would be getting credit."

"Well it would be a lot more fun than this," Brooke whined.

"Too bad," Dominique said. She turned back to the game of gobstones she was playing with Miles and threw her final stone, winning the game. "I win again!" she cried in victory.

As much as Dominique had enjoyed her time at home, she was glad to be back with her friends.


	9. May

Chapter 9: May 2014

With the arrival of May came the arrival of much stress upon the students of Hogwarts. Exams were coming and the Professors were piling on the work in preparation for the end of the year. Defence class was no different. Professor Leftbridge had decided to assign a special end-of-year project. In groups of four, the first years would be choosing one famous wizarding battle and writing a research paper on it. Dominique and Miles had already agreed to work together and Dominique had recruited Brooke while Miles had recruited Tom.

"The Battle of Hogwarts," Brooke suggested as a topic for their paper. "1998."

"Too obvious," Miles said. "That's going to be everyone's first choice. We want to do something unique."

"Dumbledore vs. Grindelwald, 1945," Tom suggested.

"That's got to be the second most popular battle," Miles disagreed.

"Vincent the Vile vs. Thomas the Treacherous, 1304," Dominique suggested.

"I think we should try to stay a little more recent than that," Brooke said. "We aren't going to have any sources for a battle that took place in the 14th century."

"What about the goblin rebellions?" Tom wondered. "There's got to be some good battles that happened during that time."

"It's supposed to be a wizarding battle," Miles reminded him. "Wizards vs. wizards, that's the assignment."

"What about one of the more obscure battles from the second wizarding war?" Dominique suggested.

"But there weren't really any battles," Brooke said. "Wasn't it basically a hostile takeover that ended in the Battle of Hogwarts?"

"Not exactly," Dominique disagreed. "Some of my Aunts and Uncles fought in a few battles before the final one."

"Like what?" Tom asked.

"Well there was the battle in the Department of Mysteries in 1996, and then there was the battle here in 1997 that ended in Dumbledore's death," Dominique listed the two she could think of off the top of her head.

"True," Miles agreed. "But there aren't too many reliable sources on those. There's almost no eyewitnesses for either of them that were ever willing to sit down with the press. It's not like the big battles that happened in plain view of hundreds of people."

"Well what do you suggest Miles?" Dominique demanded. "I haven't heard any suggestions from you yet."

"What about the Battle of Hogsmeade?" Miles volunteered.

"Remind me about that one?" Brooke requested.

"It took place during the first wizarding war. I think it was in… the winter of 1978. If I remember correctly, it happened during a Hogsmeade weekend and a bunch of Hogwarts students got caught up in it too," Miles explained.

"That's actually a pretty decent topic," Tom admitted.

"Yeah, I like it," Brooke agreed.

"Domi?" Miles asked, turning to the last member of the group for confirmation.

"Let's do it," Dominique agreed.

Over the next few days, the four Gryffindors spent lots of time in the library pouring over history books from the first wizarding war. They divided the assignment into four parts, one for each of them. Tom would be working on an overall narrative of the major aspects of the battle. Brooke would be writing profiles on all the major players involved in the battle. Miles would be working on a general history of the events leading up to the battle and following the battle and Dominique would be writing about the after-effects of the battle.

At present, Dominique was looking at a list of all the Hogwarts students that had been injured during the battle. She'd asked Madam Eldridge for the hospital wing records for the students, but had been informed that patient records were only accessible to adult family members.

"Having fun?" Miles asked, appearing behind Dominique and causing her to jump in surprise.

"Not really," Dominique muttered. "What am I supposed to do with this? It's just a list of names. I don't even know what happened to these students."

"You could always steal the patient files when Madam Eldridge isn't around," Miles suggested. "It's not like any of those people would even care. They'd have to be in their forties and fifties by now."

"But even if I did that, I wouldn't be able to cite my source without getting detention," Dominique sighed. "I'll just have to find some other source with better information I guess. How's your research going?"

"Pretty good actually," Miles replied. "I think me and Tom got the easy parts. You and Brooke have the more challenging assignments."

"Yeah, Brooke's been a little frustrated, trying to find out information about people that are long dead," Dominique agreed. "Especially the Death Eaters. At least the Order members that showed up to fight were remembered. Most of the Death Eaters at the battle were in masks. She might have to change her section to just being about the heroes."

"Maybe we should all meet together after dinner to pool what we have so far and see how much there is left to do," Miles suggested.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," Dominique agreed.

DdDdDdDdDdD

"Hey Brooke," Dominique greeted her friend as she entered the first year girls' dormitory. "So I was just in the library with Miles, and we thought the whole group should meet up after dinner to see where we all are in terms of the paper and how much more we need."

"Yeah, that sounds good," Brooke said agreeably. "At least then I'll know how much more research I still have to do or whether I have enough."

"Great!" Dominique smiled. "We figured we'd go to the library."

"Awesome," Brooke said. "Actually, I think I should probably head down there now. I want to finish one thing before we all meet up."

"Oh, okay sure," Dominique said as Brooke scrambled off her bed. "I'll catch you at dinner."

Brooke disappeared, leaving Dominique alone in the dormitory. Dominique contemplated studying for Herbology or Astronomy or something, since exams were coming up soon, but she wasn't much in the mood for studying. Instead she decided to head down to the common room to see if anyone was around.

To her disappointment, the common room was relatively empty when she descended. Miles was probably in the library too and Brittany, Joy, and Holly were all probably off working on their own projects. Even Victoire was missing, though Dominique suspected that her older sister was probably up in her own dormitory with Kara and Brianna applying nail polish.

Just as Dominique was about to give up and return to her dorm to stare at the ceiling until dinner, she noticed Tom laying across one of the less popular couches in the corner of the room with a book propped up on his stomach. He looked like he might be studying, but he also looked extremely bored, so Dominique figured he wouldn't mind if she interrupted.

"Hey," she said, plopping herself down on the opposite end of the couch where Tom's feet were. "What's up?"

"Not much," Tom confessed, pulling his feet towards himself to give Dominique some space. "I was pretending to study Potions, but really I was fighting the urge to take a nap."

"Well if you want to nap, I can leave," Dominique offered, hoping her presence wasn't unwelcome. She didn't know Tom that well on an individual level, but she'd been working with him for a while now on the Defence project and he and Miles were pretty good friends.

"Nah, it's fine. Dinner's in about half an hour anyway, so I'd either have gotten a worthlessly short nap or else I'd have missed dinner altogether," Tom said.

"Can't have that," Dominique said, unsure whether she meant the short nap or the lack of dinner. It didn't matter though, because Tom chuckled.

"So what brings you over here?" Tom wondered.

Dominique shrugged. "I was bored and nobody else is around."

"Well gee, don't I feel special," Tom joked.

"Oh, I didn't mean it like that!" Dominique hurried to assure him. "I just meant – "

"It's fine Domi, I know what you meant. It's cool," Tom calmed her.

"So…" Dominique muttered, casting around for a topic of conversation. "Excited for the end of year?"

"Yes and no," Tom shrugged.

When Tom didn't elaborate, Dominique raised her eyebrows at him.

"I mean, it'll be great to be done with classes," Tom continued, "but it also means that my only year of independence will be over. My brother Brendan starts next year."

"Oh," Dominique nodded. "Totally. Lucky for me, my brother doesn't start until the year after next, so I still have another year without him."

"Yeah, but don't you have your older sister here?" Tom asked.

"Yeah," Dominique shrugged, unsure of the relevance.

"So you're not really on your own. Because she's around too," Tom clarified.

"I guess so," Dominique agreed. "But it's different. She doesn't bother me, I'm the one that bothers her. Once Louis starts, he'll be bothering me and then I'll never have a moment to myself again."

"But don't you think it would be nice to have even just a term where there's no family around at all?" Tom wondered.

"In my family, that could never happen," Dominique groaned. "If it wasn't my brother or my sister, I've got like, a thousand aunts and uncles and million cousins. There's no hiding from that."

"I don't know if I could take being in such a big family," Tom confessed. "Even just the four of us – my parents, my brother and me – can sometimes be overwhelming."

"I guess having a big family can be overwhelming at times," Dominique agreed. "Like at Christmas when we can barely fit into the living room to open presents. But it's also nice knowing you have so many people that love and care for you."

"Yeah, I suppose that would be nice," Tom agreed. "Hey, I think dinner's started, want to head down?"

"Oh yeah, definitely," Dominique said, bouncing up off the couch and grabbing her bag eagerly. She hadn't been sure how much longer she could talk about families without running out of things to say.

DdDdDdDdDdD

After dinner, Dominique and her group trekked down to the library to pool their research for their paper and hopefully put some of it together. As it turned out, Dominique and Brooke actually had plenty of information, despite their research struggles, and since Tom and Miles had been finished researching already, they were ready to write their paper.

They began to lose track of time as they worked long into the night, hoping to finish the paper and have it out of the way so they could focus on studying for their exams.

"Alright Dominique, we just need one more paragraph for your section," Miles muttered as he wrapped up the previous paragraph. "How many more accounts do you have?"

"I've got three…" Dominique said, sifting through her notes. "There's one about a shopkeeper named Theodore Bainbridge whose leg got stuck under a pile of rubble when his shop was hit with a curse. He was taken to St. Mungo's and they healed it pretty quickly."

"That's kind of boring," Brooke pointed out. "What else have you got?"

"There's one about a patron of the Three Broomsticks who got some serious burns from being thrown into a stove by a wayward curse," Dominique added. "I think her name was Beatrice something, I forgot to write it down."

"What's the last one?" Tom asked.

"That one is an account of a seventh year Hogwarts student named Lily Potts who apparently was hit by a Cruciatus Curse. Apparently she was writhing on the ground when some other seventh year – they didn't give a name – threw himself in front of her and took the rest of the curse for her. I tried to get more information about their treatment, but Madam Eldridge wouldn't release the patient files," Dominique said.

"We don't need the patient files," Miles said. "I think we should go with that last one anyway though. We can spin it into a tale of love and sacrifice. Do you want to work on that Domi?"

"Sure," Dominique agreed, pulling a fresh sheet of parchment out to draft the paragraph that Miles would later copy out onto the official parchment with the rest of their paper – he had the best handwriting.

"Hey guys?" Brooke said all of a sudden. "Does it seem darker in here to you?"

Dominique looked up curiously to find that Brooke was right. It was significantly darker than it should be. In fact, the candles were completely extinguished and they hadn't even noticed.

"It must be closing time. I've never been in the library this late, but it must be Madam Maxwell's subtle way of telling us all to get out," Dominique noted.

"I don't think so…" Tom said slowly. "I've been in the library at closing time and usually Madam Maxwell's pretty good at coming around and yelling at everyone to leave. Something's not right here."

"Guys," Miles said in a panicked voice, looking down at his watch. "It's nine thirty. Curfew was half an hour ago."

"Oh my gosh," Brooke cried. "We're so late. How did we not notice how late it was?"

"We have to go before Mr. Clarke catches us," Dominique insisted. "I've already gotten two warnings with him and I don't think he's going to be inclined to give me a third."

"Come on," Tom said, shoving his things into his bag.

The other three Gryffindors followed his lead and they all hurried to the library exit. Dominique was at the head of the group, so she went straight for the doors and pushed against them only to find that they wouldn't budge.

"Guys, we've got a big problem," Dominique said, her voice filled with dread.

"Don't panic," Miles said. "We know a spell to unlock doors."

"Oh, right, of course," Dominique said, relief flooding through her.

"I'll do it," Tom said, pulling out his wand and pointing it at the doors. " _Alohomora_."

Nothing happened.

"Let me try," Brooke offered, copying Tom. Still nothing happened.

"Domi, you're the best at Charms," Miles noted. "You should try."

Dominique grabbed her wand from inside her robes and took a deep breath before casting the spell. When still nothing happened, she cried out in frustration.

"What are we going to do?" Dominique wailed. "We're trapped in the library and we can't get out."

"Okay, don't worry, we'll figure something out," Miles said. Dominique could see the wheels turning in his brain, trying to find a way out of the conundrum, but there was no solution.

"There's nothing to figure out," Brooke said, throwing up her hands and dropping into a chair. "We're trapped. We can't get out. There's nothing we can do until someone comes to do the nightly rounds and find us here."

Reluctantly, Dominique sunk into a chair too. Brooke was right; there was nothing they could do until Mr. Clarke or a prefect came to find them.

"Someone will notice we're missing," Tom added, taking a seat himself. "Our dormmates will be wondering where we are. They'll let someone know we're missing."

"Maybe not," Miles pointed out. "If they do they risk Gryffindor losing points. More likely they just hope we find our way back without getting caught."

"Look, someone has to come and round on the library, right?" Brooke asked. Miles shrugged. "Exactly, so someone's probably on their way right now and we just have to wait until they get here. We probably won't even get in trouble, because it's not our fault we got locked in here. Madam Maxwell should have noticed that we were still here before locking up."

"But what if we – "

"Just sit Miles," Dominique pleaded. "Just sit and wait. There's no other way out of here."

With a sigh, Miles sat down and crossed his arms across his chest in protest. "There has to be a way out," he muttered.

"There isn't," Brooke sighed, shaking her head. "Face it; we're trapped."

DdDdDdDdDdD

Two hours later, the four Gryffindors were still waiting to be discovered.

"These rounds sure are taking a while," Tom noted.

"Are we sure they're even going to check the library?" Miles wondered. "I mean; the doors were locked so tight that we couldn't even open them with magic. If students can't get in, and the library's supposed to be empty when it gets locked, then what would even be the point of checking it?"

"Don't say that," Dominique insisted with a frown. "Someone's coming."

"But – "

" _Someone's coming_ ," Dominique interrupted.

"Alright," Miles surrendered, leaning back in his seat. "Someone's coming."

DdDdDdDdDdD

By one o'clock, all four of them agreed that nobody was coming to find them. Dominique had pulled a series of chairs together to form a kind of bed that she was now laying across. Brooke had claimed the tabletop as her bed-space, and the boys were stretched out on the hard stone floor, which Dominique was sure couldn't be all that comfortable at all.

"I need a pillow," Brooke complained from the tabletop. "I can't sleep without a pillow."

"There aren't any pillows," Tom reminded her. "Try counting sheep or something."

"Counting sheep never works," Brooke whined. "Sheep are boring."

"Then count Quidditch players or something," Tom amended, too tired to start an argument.

"Ugh, why would you want to count Quidditch players?" Dominique grumbled. "Quidditch is so boring."

"I can't believe you just said that," Tom practically gasped. "Quidditch is amazing."

"I'm way too tired to have this conversation right now," Dominique groaned.

"Fine, but we aren't done with this," Tom warned. Dominique rolled over in frustration. The chairs weren't as comfortable as she'd hoped and she was stiff and sore already.

A loud snore came from Miles' direction.

"Well at least we know someone's going to get some sleep tonight," Tom muttered, shifting around on the floor in an attempt to find a better position.

DdDdDdDdDdD

Finally, morning came. The Gryffindors awoke to the sound of the library doors being opened and they all scrambled up eagerly as Madam Maxwell entered the room.

As soon as she saw the four first year students in her library, Madam Maxwell froze.

"Merlin's beard! What are you all doing in here?" she asked in surprise.

"We got locked in," Tom informed her. "Last night. We were in the back corner of the library and we didn't realize the library was closing and by the time we noticed it was so late, the doors were locked and we couldn't get out."

"I could have sworn I checked every aisle," Madam Maxwell gasped. "I'm so sorry children, I never would have left had I known you were still inside."

"Would it be alright if we went back to our dorms now?" Brooke wondered. "Unless we're in trouble or something…"

"Of course, please feel free to leave," Madam Maxwell said. "I'm sure you want to get out of here and back to your comfortable beds. I'll have to speak to the Headmistress about this of course, but you must all be exhausted."

"Thank you Madam Maxwell," Miles said as the Gryffindors trooped past her and towards Gryffindor Tower.

Climbing the stairs was painful as the first years were stiff, sore, and exhausted from a night of little sleep. As soon as they arrived in their dorms, they fell right onto their mattresses and were immediately fast asleep. All too soon, they were being awoken by their roommates, insisting that if they didn't wake up soon they would be late to breakfast.

"I have the worst headache ever," Dominique complained in the Great Hall that morning as she ate some buttered toast.

"It can't be worse than mine," Miles yawned. "I think I banged it on the floor in my sleep last night. It won't stop pounding."

"I don't know how we're going to make it through classes today," Brooke complained.

"At least we have History of Magic first," Tom pointed out. "We can sleep through that."

As they were heading out of the Great Hall and towards their first class of the day, the first years were intercepted by Headmistress McGonagall. She assured them that she was extremely sorry for what had happened and assured them they weren't in trouble. She added that they had recently stopped doing rounds in the library in favor of simply locking it at night, but that in light of what had happened, she was reinstating library rounds effective immediately.

Dominique didn't hear much else of what she said and only really cared that she wasn't in trouble. By the end of the day, she was more than happy to crawl into her bed and curl up and sleep the night away.

DdDdDdDdDdD

"Alright, the paper's finished!" Miles exclaimed happily about a week later. After their night in the library, none of the four had wanted to revisit their research project for Defence due to the bad memories. Eventually though, they'd had to sit down – this time in the common room – to wrap it up, and now it was completely finished.

"Finally," Dominique said, throwing her quill onto the table dramatically. "I never want to think about the Battle of Hogsmeade ever again."


	10. June

Chapter 10: June 2014

After their night in the library, Dominique, Brooke, Miles, and Tom all became pretty close. It was almost impossible not to after going through such an ordeal together. As exams neared, whenever they weren't studying with the rest of their Gryffindor classmates, they were studying together as a foursome, anywhere but in the library.

Soon exams were upon them and as they lined up to enter their first exam – Herbology – they quizzed each other in the hopes of ensuring that all the information was at the top of their heads.

"Dominique: how do you get rid of Devil's Snare?" Tom quizzed.

"They hate sunlight, so… lumos solem!" Dominique answered quickly.

"Correct," Tom confirmed.

"Alright, Brooke, how do you tell a spiky bush apart from a prickly plant?" Dominique questioned.

"Oh, I know this!" Brooke exclaimed. "It's the color of the thorns! I think the spiky bush has… yellow thorns?"

"That's right!" Dominique smiled.

"Awesome, okay Miles, you're up," Brooke declared. "What class of non-tradeable substance is the venomous tentacula?"

"Oh I'm not sure… class C?" Miles ventured.

"Yup!" Brooke exclaimed.

"We are so ready for this exam," Dominique assured everyone.

Just then, the door to greenhouse one opened and Professor Longbottom ushered the first years inside.

"Alright, I've placed exam papers at every other seat, so please only sit where you see a piece of parchment," their Professor requested. "Some of you will be sitting at the tables along the sides instead of at desks, but this is only to ensure that you're all far enough away from each other that there won't be any cheating."

"Good luck guys," Miles muttered to his friends as they split up and took seats around the room.

Once everyone was seated, Professor Longbottom checked his watch. "Alright, you can start," he announced. "If you have any questions, just raise your hand and I'll come speak to you where you are so as not to disturb the other students. Also, be sure to write your names on your exams please."

Dominique smiled sheepishly. She'd forgotten to put her name on their last assignment and if it weren't for the fact that she was the only student to forget, Professor Longbottom might not have known it was her assignment.

Taking a deep breath, Dominique turned her test paper over and scribbled her name in the top left corner. Then she lowered her eyes to the first question and began to read.

 _Question 1: What class of non-tradeable substance does the venomous tentacula plant fall under?_

 _a)_ _Class A_

 _b)_ _Class B_

 _c)_ _Class C_

 _d)_ _Class D_

Dominique smiled. She totally knew the answer to this one! They'd just gone over it in the corridor. She happily circled c) and moved on to question two.

 _Question 2: You are walking through the jungle and you come across a patch of Devil's Snare. It starts winding around your ankles and travelling up your legs. You only have a few minutes before you're completely trapped. What spell do you use to save yourself?_

 _a)_ _Lumos Solem_

 _b)_ _Incendio_

 _c)_ _Diffindo_

 _d)_ _Wingardium Leviosa_

Dominique chuckled. Why would anyone use Wingardium Leviosa on Devil's Snare? That would be ridiculous! She carefully circled a) and moved on to the next question.

 _Question 3: What color thorns does the spiky bush have?_

 _a)_ _Red_

 _b)_ _Yellow_

 _c)_ _Blue_

 _d)_ _Purple_

Dominique smirked. This whole exam was so easy; a first year could have written it. In fact, she and her friends had come up with the first three questions on their own already. She was going to ace this. Confidently, she moved on to question four.

 _Question 4: What magical creature is allergic to the Puffapod?_

 _a)_ _Dragon_

 _b)_ _Troll_

 _c)_ _Giant_

 _d)_ _Goblin_

Dominique bit her lip. She and her friends hadn't gone over this material. She knew Puffapods produced seeds that flowered whenever they hit anything solid, but she couldn't remember anything else from that lesson. Her heart sank. Here she'd thought Hogwarts final exams weren't going to be so difficult, but now she was rethinking her confidence. If Professor Longbottom was going to ask such obscure questions, then what would Professor Tonks or Professor Binns include?

Unsure, Dominique circled c) and continued with the rest of her exam.

DdDdDdDdDdD

"Well that totally sucked!" Tom exclaimed when they were finally released from greenhouse one.

"Tell me about it," Brooke agreed. "I mean, those first three questions were easy, but after that…"

"What creature is allergic to Puffapods anyway?" Dominique wondered.

"Trolls," Miles replied, as though this were obvious.

"How do you remember that?" Brooke demanded.

"I don't know," Miles shrugged. "It was in my notes. I read it when I was revising. I remembered it when I saw the question."

"And you didn't think to share the information with the rest of us when you came across it revising?" Dominique accused.

"I didn't think it was important at the time," Miles defended himself. "And besides, is it really my fault if you didn't write it down in your own notes?"

"Yes," Dominique confirmed, really more upset with herself than Miles, but not wanting to admit it. "Yes it is."

Miles shrugged. "Sorry I guess."

DdDdDdDdDdD

When the first years were released from their last final exam the following week, they were overjoyed to be free.

"We should celebrate!" Brooke declared. "What should we do?"

"We could play gobstones," Miles suggested.

"But isn't that a two-person game?" Brooke pointed out.

"Okay, so we play two rounds of one-on-one, and then the winners play each other," Miles decided.

"Yeah alright," Tom agreed. "You and me go first man."

While Miles and Tom set up the game and began to play, Dominique and Brooke sat back and observed.

"This sure has been an interesting year," Brooke commented.

"Why do you say that?" Dominique asked.

"Well if you'd have asked me back in September who I'd be hanging out with after exams were over, this is definitely not the group I would have guessed. You maybe, but certainly not Tom and Miles," Brooke replied.

"Is that a bad thing?" Dominique wondered nervously.

"Not at all!" Brooke exclaimed. "I just never would have predicted this. But we've actually got a pretty great group happening here."

"I win!" Miles declared as he and Tom finished their game.

"Your turn," Tom added, gesturing to the girls.

"Get ready to lose," Dominique smirked.

Dominique graciously took the less favorable first turn and rolled her gobstone to a perfect position. Brooke went next and completely missed the target. Dominique took her second turn and claimed a spot right next to her other stone. Brooke tried again, and this time aimed well, but shot her stone too far, resulting in a scramble on the part of the boys to locate the lost gobstone on the other side of the room. By the end of the game, Dominique had all her gobstones sitting happily around the target while Brooke's closest stone still lay outside the target itself.

"Looks like I won," Dominique smiled. She turned to Miles. "You ready to lose?"

"Only if by lose you actually mean win, in which case, are you ready to win, by which I mean lose?" Miles asked, frowning at himself partway through as he became confused.

Dominique shook her head. "Yeah, don't do that," she suggested. "Just play."

It was no surprise that Dominique and Miles were the two winners, since they played each other at gobstones frequently and Brooke and Tom had never played before. It was almost unfair to have forced them to play at all, but then Dominique realized, how else would they ever improve?

In the end, Miles won the tournament, and Dominique grumpily put the game away, suddenly no longer in the mood to play anymore.

"So," Miles began, leaning back in his seat comfortably, "are we going to the final Quidditch game of the season on Saturday?"

"Definitely not," Dominique shook her head.

"What?" Brooke cried. "Oh come on Domi, you have to come. It's the final Quidditch game. The one where we find out who won!"

Dominique shrugged. "I guess I just don't really care about Quidditch. It's boring."

"Oh not this again," Tom groaned. "Have you ever even been to a Quidditch game?"

"Well no," Dominique admitted. "Not a real one. But my family plays a lot. We have a makeshift pitch outside my grandparents' house."

"That doesn't count," Tom declared. "You can't say you don't like Quidditch until you've been to a real game."

"But it's going to be so boring!" Dominique whined.

"Oh come on," Brooke insisted. "We'll all be there. What are you going to do? Sit around the common room by yourself?"

"Why not?" Dominique challenged. "It's so rare I have an empty common room to sit in all alone."

"Oh come on Domi, please come with us," Brooke pleaded. "If you hate it, you never have to come to another game again."

"Fine," Dominique sighed. "But I'm holding you to that last statement."

Miles smiled. "This is going to be fun!"

DdDdDdDdDdD

Saturday morning was sunny and warm – perfect weather for a Quidditch match. Reluctantly, Dominique allowed Brooke to drag her out of bed and shove her into the shower to get ready to go and spectate – Dominique would have preferred to sleep in, but Brooke wasn't having any of that.

Once they were clean and dressed, the girls descended to the Great Hall to meet the boys for breakfast.

"What a beautiful day for Quidditch," Tom greeted them. "And don't you ladies look lovely this morning."

Dominique glowered at Tom, still wishing for the comfort of her bed and the softness of her pillow.

"Oh come on Domi, if you start off with a bad attitude, then there's no way you're going to enjoy yourself," Tom complained.

"There's really no way I'm going to enjoy myself either way," Dominique countered.

"You know, you're really starting to hurt my feelings," Tom said jokingly. "I would have thought that my presence alone would be enough to cheer you up."

Dominique rolled her eyes and smiled. "You wish Tom."

"Here Domi," Miles said, stabbing a pancake with a fork and dropping it onto her plate. "Have some breakfast."

"Thanks," Dominique said, still smiling. "I love pancakes."

"See? This day is going to be so much fun!" Brooke exclaimed.

"Don't push it," Dominique warned, pouring sticky syrup onto her pancake and digging in.

DdDdDdDdDdD

After breakfast was over, the four Gryffindors trooped out onto the grounds and down to the Quidditch pitch.

"Ugh, it's too warm out," Dominique complained. "I'm going to get a sunburn."

"Dominique, are you even capable of getting a sunburn?" Brooke asked, referring to Dominique's Veela heritage.

"I don't think so," Dominique admitted.

"Alright, let's make a deal," Brooke declared. "You are not allowed to complain about anything else until the Quidditch game is over. You are going to do your best to enjoy yourself and you aren't going to sabotage this experience."

"But – "

"No buts," Brooke interrupted. "Otherwise we'll just force you to come to more games until you give it a fair try."

"But you promised that – "

"Only if you give the game a fair try," Brooke repeated. "If you don't have an open mind, then it doesn't count."

"Alright fine," Dominique sighed. "Woo, Quidditch. I love Quidditch! Yeah!"

"That was weak," Miles commented.

"Hey, I'm trying, aren't I?" Dominique retorted.

They reached the pitch and climbed up into the Gryffindor section to await the beginning of the match. The game was Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, so the red and green sections were definitely the fullest and the loudest.

"How are we supposed to talk when it's so loud?" Dominique yelled above all the shouting.

"Like this," Brooke yelled back.

"When does the game start?" Dominique cried.

"Any minute now," Tom answered.

Just then, the Gryffindor and Slytherin teams emerged from their respective dressing rooms and crossed the pitch to the center, where they faced off. Madame Volant emerged with the balls and instructed the captains to shake hands. Once they had done that, everyone mounted their brooms and took their positions in the sky while Madame Volant released first the snitch and then the bludgers, taking the quaffle into her arms and taking her place in the exact center of the pitch.

"Let the match… begin!" she cried, throwing the quaffle up into the air.

The players immediately began to fly in every direction. Someone in green grabbed the quaffle first and shot off towards the Gryffindor goalposts. Whoever was guarding the goalposts did a good job blocking the shot though, and before Dominique knew it, the quaffle was zooming across to the other side of the pitch.

Someone was announcing the game, but Dominique wasn't paying any attention to that. She couldn't understand most of the technical words they were using anyway, and she didn't really care enough to follow the game all that closely.

As the game wore on, Dominique started getting tired. She tried not to yawn, but she couldn't help it.

"Domi, did you just yawn?" Miles gasped.

Dominique shrugged. "Sorry?" she replied.

"I can't believe you aren't into this," Miles cried. "Do you realize how close the score is? It's a nail-biter!"

"I guess Quidditch just isn't my thing," Dominique shrugged apologetically.

Miles shook his head and Dominique turned her attention back to the game. As she did so, the golden snitch fluttered down from above and hovered right in front of her face.

"Um… guys…?" she began hesitantly. What was she supposed to do? Grab it? Let it hover there? Unluckily for her, the answer was decided when a player in green swooped down and knocked Dominique out of the way in order to grab the little golden ball.

"Slytherin wins!" the announcer called out.

"Dominique, are you okay?" Miles cried, reaching out to help Dominique up.

"I. Do. Not. Like. Quidditch." Dominique declared through gritted teeth.

Miles sighed. "Well you gave it your best shot," he allowed. "I guess it's just not your thing."

"Thank you," Dominique said. "So we're good? I don't have to come to any more Quidditch games?"

"You don't have to come to any more Quidditch games," Brooke allowed. "But you're really going to miss out."

"You know what?" Dominique said. "I really don't think I will."

DdDdDdDdDdD

The next day, everyone had to be up early to board the Hogwarts Express. Now that the term was over, it was time to go home for the summer holidays. Dominique, Brooke, Miles, and Tom all clamored onto the train and found an empty compartment quickly enough. Dominique levitated all their trunks up onto the luggage racks above them and they took their seats as the scarlet steam engine pulled out of Hogsmeade station.

"So what do you think next year will be like?" Miles wondered as they all settled in for the long trip home.

"Who knows?" Dominique shrugged.

"I'd try out for the Quidditch team, but I want to play seeker and the captain is seeker," Brooke said sadly.

"Yeah, but she's going to be a seventh year next year, so you can always try out in third year," Tom pointed out.

"Do you think you guys would ever try out?" Brooke asked. "Obviously Domi never would."

"You can say that again," Dominique confirmed.

"I might," Miles admitted. "Certainly not next year. I'd wait until I was older."

"Yeah, me too," Tom agreed.

"What position do you think?" Brooke wondered.

"Beater," Tom and Miles replied in unison.

"Seriously?" Brooke asked. "You'd both want to be beater?"

"Beater is the best position," Tom said. "You get to bang bludgers around with giant bats. Nothing beats that."

"Well it looks like you're going to have a bit of competition in each other," Brooke smirked.

"Or we could train together," Miles pointed out. "Try out as a team of beaters."

"That's not a bad idea," Tom said. "Beaters do need to work together on the pitch, so if we trained together, we'd already be attuned to each other."

"Oh my gosh can we please change the topic?" Dominique cried, unable to take much more Quidditch talk.

"Oh come on Domi, now we can't talk about Quidditch?" Tom cried.

"Sure you can," Dominique allowed. "Just talk about it later, when I fall asleep. Because let's be honest, I'm exhausted and I'm going to fall asleep eventually."

"But we're talking about it now," Brooke pointed out.

"Well I'm vetoing the conversation topic," Dominique decided.

"You can't just veto conversation topics," Brooke disagreed.

"I just did," Dominique declared.

"Alright, alright," Miles cried, trying to keep the peace. "Maybe let's move on and circle back to Quidditch later in the day. We only just started moving, we don't want to start arguing yet. Besides, there aren't too many places to go right now since we're on a moving train."

Reluctantly, Brooke and Tom agreed to change the subject and the rest of the train ride passed smoothly. True to her word, Dominique fell asleep mid-afternoon, curling up against the window, and her friends were able to continue their Quidditch conversation without interruption or complaint.

All too soon, the train was pulling into King's Cross station and Dominique was levitating their trunks back down from the luggage racks.

"Well," Dominique shrugged. "I guess I'll see you guys in September. Unless anyone wants to come to Diagon Alley for ice cream with me and my family?"

"I wish," Brooke sighed. "But I've got dinner with my grandparents tonight."

"Yeah, I've got a whole family thing happening too," Tom added.

"Miles?" Dominique asked.

Miles shrugged. "I could ask my parents," he said. "I'll be right back," he added, running off.

"I think I see my parents over there," Tom pointed a distance down the platform. "See you guys."

"Bye!" Dominique and Brooke waved as Tom disappeared.

"I better go look for my family too," Brooke said once Tom was gone.

"Alright," Dominique said. "Well be sure to write."

"Oh I will," Brooke assured her. "Have a good summer!"

Brooke disappeared too, leaving Dominique waiting for Miles. She began scanning the crowd for her own family and finally found them not too far away. Victoire was already there, and they were just looking for her.

"My parents said yes!" Miles cried, reappearing at Dominique's side. "As long as I'm home by dinner."

"Awesome!" Dominique exclaimed. "Come on, my family's right over there."

With a smile, Dominique introduced her family to her friend and informed them that she had invited Miles to join them for ice cream.

"The more the merrier," Dominique's father said.

"It is so nice to meet one of Dominique's friends. She writes about you all the time," her mother added.

Dominique rolled her eyes. "Well come on," she said. "Let's go!"

Together, Dominique, Miles, Victoire, Louis, Bill, and Fleur all trooped out of King's Cross together, ready for an ice cream treat to start the summer off right.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Hope you liked the story.**

 **Reviews are much appreciated.**

 **For more in the House of the Brave series, please visit my profile page. More stories coming soon.**

 **Next up in Dominique's story: Read My Lips**


End file.
